The Prince's Return
by smokeydirtcat
Summary: [Sequel to Angel Prince] Echizen doesn't feel right after returning from the angel world. Something is wrong and it is upsetting the balance. He goes back with his brother and all the regulars to find an even greater threat than before and even some enemies from his past.
1. Not This Again

**Haha! See? What did I tell you guys? First chapter of my first story and sequel to **_**Angel Prince.**_** Hopefully it will turn out good. I should have lots of time to work on this seeing as I have started it at 01:23am on March 27, 2013. I don't know when the hell this chapter will be out but I got two days off school so that should help. Okay now, hopefully this will go smooth. I'm in Japanese so it should be easier for me to put in words that actually make sense without Google's help.**

**Oh, how I've missed doing this: I don't own PoT… oh the memories.**

**Well here's chapter one. Hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

A year has passed since returning from the angel world. In that time, Ryoga had returned to America but is due back to japan for another visit. For a few weeks after he left, Echizen had to deal with his teammates and their new lives as angels. Each one of them was trying to master their new skills such as their ability to fly and perform magic. Echizen even caught Momo with a small ball of electricity in his hand and trying to impress the girls in his class. Even Tezuka seemed to enjoy himself with his powers. Every once in a while, Echizen would see him messing with some form of magic or slight levitation. Due to a spell that Echizen put on everyone no one but their own kind could see their wings.

With all the time that Echizen spent in the angel world not counting his childhood and even though he was constantly almost getting killed, he missed it. Yeah, the last time he was there everything was in ruins but it was mending and he could feel it. He had memories from when he was an infant and everything was lush and green and he wanted to see that again. He would often catch himself with his wings out around the school but he didn't know why. There was something inside him longing to see the place where his life began.

That day started out as the other first did: early practice. More than anything in the world, Echizen hated morning practice. Having to get up before normal school hours was insane but nonetheless, he liked tennis so he put up with it. That day, instead of going up against Arai, he was with Kikumaru. Echizen could not for anything he had figure out how his sempai could have so much energy in the morning.

"Nya Ochibi, play far!" Kikumaru shouted from across the court. "You have that look in your eyes again!" 'The look' he was referring to was the slight gleam in Echizen's eyes when he was using magic to his advantage.

Echizen smirked. "What look sempai?" the ball was coming his way and his eyes seemed to sparkle **(gah! corny!)** and when he hit the ball back it seemed to go abnormally fast. Kikumaru's eyes were locked on it but when he went to hit it, it was already bouncing at the back of the court.

"Ochibi! You cheated! Tezuka, Ochibi's using his magic even though he keeps scolding us when we use it!" he shouted at Tezuka but immediately clapped his hands over his mouth since there were others there.

"There he goes again." Momo sighed while tapping his racket on his shoulder.

"Fsshhh, he needs to learn to keep his mouth shut." Kaidou hissed.

"Kikumaru, stop spouting nonsense." Tezuka shouted.

"Sempai, everyone knows that there's no such thing as magic. You're probably just getting too old and slow to keep up." Echizen said while letting his eyes gleam again.

Kikumaru was about to start shouting again but was cut off by Tezuka. "Echizen, go run laps around the school for being rude."

"Nya-ha! Serves you right Ochibi!" Kikumaru shouted in victory.

"Would you like to join him?" Tezuka asked slightly glaring at him.

Kikumaru sweat dropped. He knew why Tezuka was really punishing Echizen and the reason he would be punished.

"Gomen." he sighed and walked away from the court but no before a ball hit him in the back of the head. He looked around to see who did it but only saw Echizen smirking from the openings of the court. Kikumaru frowned and stuck his tongue out as Echizen jogged off while he walked over to the other regulars.

"Eiji, you know better than to talk about _that_ when it's not just us." Oishi scolded.

"If you keep talking like that people will begin to think you need to visit a mental hospital." Taka said.

"Gomenisai... but Ochibi started it first!" he retaliated.

"Saa, that doesn't make it right though." Fuji said. "But I've noticed that Echizen has been acting a bit different than usual."

"Different how?" Inui asked.

"I've noticed it too." Momo said. "He seems more distant than he normally is."

Fuji nodded. "Not to mention the use of his magic."

"Maybe he's just going through a faze." taka suggested.

"All of you, back to practice." Tezuka shouted to them. "Or you'll be joining Echizen."

"Hai!" they all shouted in response as they went to the courts.

* * *

Echizen was lost in his thoughts while he jogged around the school; not really paying attention to where he was going or his speed. The day had a nice breeze; the sun was out with a few clouds in the sky. It would be perfect if it didn't feel so... abnormal. He knew why he was really running and around the school and not just the courts: Tezuka had said he would make practice hell for them if they used magic even if it was just a little thing like he was doing.

He looked up and saw some flowers that had recently bloomed. They had reminded him of the flowers in his mother's garden in the angel world seeing as his parents were rarely ever home on earth. He stopped his running and went to them and picked one; the petals being as blue as the sea, the center like an unripen cherry and the stem as a recently polished emerald. Those were the things Echizen missed from the angel world.

He sighed. Something in him regretted leaving but given that he only returned and remembered was the fact that four years ago he began getting attacked by servants of the black-winged angel, he didn't really know why he was so upset about it. He had gone most of his life hiding who he is and now, he wanted to show it off.

Another sigh escaped his lips. He took the pendent from his shirt and looked at it. It was shining ever so slightly. He didn't know what to do. He wanted to keep the past in the past and focus on the future in front of him.

"_Come back soon Heika!' Josiah shouted._

"_Ah!" Echizen waved to him. The regulars and Ryoga all made a circle around him. There was a bright light that surrounded them then they were gone, back to earth._

Josiah's voice rang in his head. He had people there that cared about him and wanted him to go back. He let the flower fall from his hands and tucked the pendent back under his shirt. He had grown accustomed to wearing it for so long, along with the bracelet with the wolf charm on it. Before he left, Ryoga had told him about what had happened with the wolf and he hasn't taken the bracelet off since.

He shook his head, trying to make everything more clearly on what he should do. He started jogging again but at a slower pace. He got to the second turn from the building when he felt a painful stinging sensation in his right shoulder. He looked to see what had caused it and saw a small kunai embedded in it. He immediately raises his defenses waiting for a second one but it never came.

What now? He couldn't continue running with that sticking out of his shoulder acting like nothing happened. He looked around to make sure no one was there, extended his wings and flew to the roof of the school. When there, he proceeded to take the weapon from his shoulder to which it started bleeding at once. He threw the small blade on the ground and put pressure on his shoulder. The wound went deeper than he had thought which meant it wasn't going to be closing any time soon.

He quickly plucked a feather from his wings and whispered something to it. It then shot from his hand towards the tennis courts.

* * *

"Tezuka, how long were you planning on making Echizen run?" Fuji asked.

"He knows the rules. If he uses _that_ here, punishment will be relentless." Tezuka said eyeing all of the regulars, Kikumaru in particular.

"Yes but don't you think it's a little harsh?"

Tezuka raised his eyebrow. "Would you like to join him?"

Fuji smiled and walked away from him making his way to Kikumaru. "You know you should be running with Echizen since you were the one that made a big scene out of It." he said clapping Kikumaru on the back.

"Eh? But Ochibi was the one who started it!" He retorted.

"It shouldn't matter who started it _or_ who finishes it. You two are both equally responsible." Oishi said.

"Back to practice or else everyone will be joining Echizen." Tezuka shouted at the regulars.

They all scattered like bees. Oishi went to get another racket when a feather floated down on his bag. He noticed it wasn't a normal bird feather seeing as it was exceptionally long and it had a calming goldish-orange color to it. He noticed the spots of red on it and remembered what everyone had gone through in the year prior. That was one of Echizen's feathers. He didn't know why he would find one nor did he really care. He was filled with dred and horror when he realized the spots on it were actually blood from someone's fingers.

He picked it up to get a closer look at it and when he did, he heard Echizen's voice in his head.

_Oishi-sempai, please meet me on the roof of the school. I need your help._

Echizen's voice faded along with the feather that was in his hands. He looked towards the roof of the school and almost pulled his wings out and flew there in front of everyone. The thing that prevented him from doing so was the hand he felt on his shoulder.

"Oishi, I take it that you would like to join Echizen in his running?" Tezuka's tone of voice sounded a bit annoyed.

"I would like to join him... but for other reasons..." Oishi answered in a tone just louder than a whisper.

"What are you talking about?"

"Tezuka, I think Echizen needs my help. I think he's in trouble."

"How do you know this?"

"I heard him asking me for help, in my head." he turned to the roof. "He said to meet him on the roof and he needed my help." he turned back to Tezuka. "Tezuka, with everything that we've been though..."

"Fine then. If Echizen is really up there, find out what he needs but if he is merely skipping out on his run, you'll be joining him next time." Tezuka then turned his back and walked over to watch the others practice.

"Hai!" Oishi ran off the courts and headed for the building. When he got there, he quickly went in and up to the roof and saw Echizen leaning on the fence while holding his shoulder with his wings out, lost in his thoughts.

"Echizen…" he was slightly captivated by the sight and how magnificent Echizen looked standing there but was pulled away when he saw the amount of blood running down his arm and on his shirt. "Echizen!"

Echizen slowly turned his head and looked at Oishi. It was a look of not physical pain like he might have thought but more or something… emotional.

"Oishi-sempai…"

Oishi ran to him and examined his arm. "What happened?!"

Echizen told Oishi what had happened and what has been happening for the last year as his arm was being mended.

"This has been going on since you got back?" Oishi asked as he finished wrapping Echizen's shoulder.

"Yeah…" Echizen rotated his shoulder but not without wincing a bit from the pain. "Oishi-sempai, something's wrong; in the angel world. I don't know what it is but I can feel it." There was silence for a minute or two. Echizen looked at the sky. "I can't finish practice with this." He placed his hand on this shoulder. "And it wouldn't be a good idea if anyone else saw me like this."

"I know Echizen. Go home and take care of it. I'll tell Tezuka what happened." He hesitated before saying the next part. "Are your parents currently at home?"

Echizen scoffed. "It's news to me if they are." He pulled out his wings and levitated off the ground. "Arigatou Oishi-sempai." He started to fly in the direction of his house.

"We'll be by after school to see how you're doing." Oishi yelled to him.

Echizen merely lifted his uninjured arm and gave him a backwards wave then flew to his house. Oishi watched him until he was out of sight then rushed from the building and back to the courts to tell Tezuka what had happened.

* * *

Echizen arrived at his house fairly slow from normal not because he was injured but because he kept getting lost in thought and veering off course. He landed in his yard and wasn't surprised when Karupin came out to greet him. Rather than just into his arms like he normally did, he stared at Echizen's shoulder then started to pull on this on his pant leg so he would follow.

"What are you doing?" Echizen bent down to pet him but before he could, Karupin ran back to the doorway of the house and meowed. Echizen raised an eyebrow as to why the door was open in the first place. He followed Karupin inside and he lead him to the kitchen to which Echizen was looking at someone in his refrigerator. He crossed his arms and glared. "Oi!"

The figure peeked its head on top of the fridge door with a smile across his face. "Yo Chibisuke!"

"What are you doing here?" Echizen asked in a less than amused tone.

"What?" Ryoga came out of the fridge. "Can't I stop by to see how my little brother is doing?" He stared at the blood stained shirt and bandages. "Not too well by the looks of it."

Echizen scoffed and walked towards the living room. "Think so? No, I'm doing perfectly fine despite the fact there was an arrow in my shoulder." He sat on the couch and rubbed his shoulder.

Ryoga frowned slightly and followed and sat next to him. "Let me see it." Echizen removed his shirt and to his and Ryoga's surprise, the blood had begun to seep through the bandages. "What happened?" He told Ryoga what had been happening the last year and at school and how Oishi mended his shoulder. Ryoga found it a bit odd that since Oishi had fixed him up, it didn't stay fixed for long. Since he was the expert in medicine among them and his powers basically make it so just by touching someone the injury should go away, it was strange that Echizen's wound opened back up after such a short amount of time. Echizen chalked it off as to being too reckless with it or Oishi not doing a thorough job even if he found that hard to believe.

"Chibisuke, why didn't you contact me? I could've helped." Ryoga said after applying new, clean bandages to his wound.

"I didn't need your help." Echizen replied.

"Don't give me that bullshit." Ryoga rose from his place next to his brother. "You're not invincible. This proves it." He gestured to the injury. "You can't do everything alone. You know what we have to do."

Echizen sighed. He did know but he didn't know what to think of it. "Fine."

Ryoga gave him a cheeky smile. "Yosh!"

* * *

"Aah, I hope Echizen's alright." Taka said walking out of the club room with the others.

"He's probably fine." Momo said trying to comfort him. "Ne Mamoshi?"

"Fsshhh, Oishi-sempai does have a tendency to blow things out of proportion sometimes." Kaidou said.

"It highly unlikely that Echizen is bleeding to death." Inui stated while looking through his notes.

"Nya, but Ochibi has been acting strange lately." Kikumaru said. "What if something like that really did happen?"

Everyone gave a light hearted groan. Kikumaru was right. Echizen had been acting more distant from people; like trapped in a dream and not just ignoring everyone like he normal did.

"Whatever it is, we'll see when we get to his house." Fuji said as the group came from the club room and over to Tezuka, Oishi and himself. They all gathered the last of their things and started walking to Echizen's house. After a few minutes the arrived and were a bit surprised when Ryoga answered the door.

"What are you doing here Ryoga-san?" Fuji asked.

"Never mind that right now." He had a wicked grin on his face. "Mina, go pack your bags."

"Doushite?" Momo asked.

"We're going back to the angel world."

* * *

**Ah, well, there it is. Don't hate me because it took so long. My computer does this thing where it likes to make Microsoft not work for like two weeks to a month so yeah. I would have had it out sooner if that didn't happen.**

**Hope you guys liked it. I think it's alright. This is all I got so far as ideas. I'm not gonna lie, I have no idea when the next chapter is going to come out. I want to try to get on a steady update schedule but seeing as there is less than two weeks of school left… naw, that's a lie. I'm not gonna study for anything because I have nothing to study for. I've been occupied with my TF2 story and I'm having relationship difficulties but who the hell cares! Chapter one is done! Whoooooo!**

**I don't wanna have to be one of those people that say 'this many reviews for next chapter' but reviews do help push writers. I don't care how many I get but it would be nice to have a far few. I'm gonna start on the next chapter now so hopefully it'll be out soon.**

**Okay well that's it. Hope you liked it! I'll see you guys soon!**


	2. A Familiar Face

**Yo! How long has it been? I have no clue. How did you guys like the first chapter? I went back and read some of the first one… I mean, wow. Did I really write like that? I feel like I've grown but whatever. IT'S SUMMER. I AM NOW A FRESHMAN IN COLLEGE. I should have **_**loads**_** more time now**

_**E and Y: **_** As for your question of why I call Echizen **_**Echizen,**_** mainly it's because in Japan they say last names instead of first so I wanna stay true to that. Plus everyone else calls him it and it's weird for me to call him Ryoma.**

**OWN PRINCE OF TENNIS… sadly, I do not.**

**PS. I don't remember if I gave the Angel World an actual name yet or not but it's getting a new one and you guys will like it :x**

**Ah well, here's chapter two. Enjoy!**

* * *

_Everyone gave a light hearted groan. Kikumaru was right. Echizen had been acting more distant from people; like trapped in a dream and not just ignoring everyone like he normal did._

"_Whatever it is, we'll see when we get to his house." Fuji said as the group came from the club room and over to Tezuka, Oishi and himself. They all gathered the last of their things and started walking to Echizen's house. After a few minutes the arrived and were a bit surprised when Ryoga answered the door._

"_What are you doing here Ryoga-san?" Fuji asked._

"_Never mind that right now." He had a wicked grin on his face. "Mina, go pack your bags."_

"_Doushite?" Momo asked._

"_We're going back to the angel world."_

* * *

"Where's Echizen and Ryoga-san? We've been here forever!" Momo complained.

"We've only been here for ten minutes Momo." Fuji stated.

"He's always late." Kaidou said. "No matter what."

"I would be worried if he were on time." Taka said.

"Nya, but shouldn't he at least show up on time to something he planned?" Kikumaru complained.

"Be sure to invite me when that day happens." Fuji said with a smile while looking around to any sight of the brothers.

It was a few more minutes before Echizen and Ryoga finally wound up at the school. They had their bags packed and had Karupin in his carrier. All together, they looked like they were going to go camping for a very long time. They both set down there bags and Echizen sighed when he set down Karupin's carrier; having thought of how long it takes to get him into it and knowing that he's going to have to be let out again. The rest of the regulars saw this and thought back to the previous time they had to search for the feline.

"Gomen minna." Ryoga said. "We had some… issues" He looked over his shoulder at Karupin's carrier. Everyone sweat dropped because they knew exactly what he was talking about.

"Everyone's here right?" Echizen asked a little annoyed.

"Hai!" Kikumaru said very enthusiastically. "Let's go nya!"

Everyone formed a circle with their bags and Echizen in the middle. They all watched as Echizen's wings slowly appeared. They were still beautiful. It looked as if they had gotten brighter since the last time everyone actually got to see them without Echizen accidentally bringing them out during school hours.

He looked around at everyone and nodded. He extended his wings fully, took a deep breath and began to chant.

'_I speak to you, O Guardians of Earth and Sky. Let us go to the place where it all started. Let our wings take flight. Let us go henceforth to Arcania: Passage.'_

A light surrounded everyone and in a flash of a very bright light, they were gone. There was always a feeling when traveling between dimensions of space and time. It's sort of like the tingly feeling you get when your arm or leg goes to sleep so it wasn't exactly pleasant but not unpleasant either.

In another flash of light, everyone arrived in Arcania but what they saw wasn't pleasant. Before they left the first time to return to Earth, the sky was blue, the trees were starting to green again, there were fields of grass and flowers that started growing but now, everything seemed worse than the first time they visited. The sky was black despite what time of day it had been and all the green and color that seemed to be there was gone. Everything was scorched black and a dead brown; there were even some animal carcasses scattered about.

"What… happened…?" Ryoga stood wide eyed at the horror in front of him.

"I thought that everything was getting better." Fuji said.

"Nya, all of the pretty colors are gone…" Kikumaru sadly whined.

Everyone took in the sight in front of the, not knowing what to think. Could so much change in just a year? Given that it didn't really look different from before but it wasn't just the appearance. The entire feel of the land was different, not even that. It was as there was no feeling at all. Usually, the people of the land could sense if the land was healthy or in danger but now, there was nothing. It was empty; no life, no death, nothing. Though Echizen has little to no memories of this homeland, he couldn't believe what he was seeing. Everything was gone.

"Where are we?" Inui asked. "I mean, what part of the country are we in?"

"There aren't really any and makes to look for…" Oishi slightly regretting the words that came out of his mouth.

"Can we get to the castle where we are now?" Kaidou asked.

"A-Ah…" Ryoga still couldn't believe what he was seeing. "If… we can figure out which was is north, we should be able to find our way to the castle, if not the general area it's in."

"I brought of compass if it's any use." Taka said rummaging through his bag.

"Afraid not. The magnetic field here is different from the one on earth so it would most likely just end up getting us lost." Ryoga said stretching his wings. "The best bet for us right now is to look around and just hope we see something that will point us in the right direction."

"Oi Echizen, do you know where we are?" Momo asked. Echizen remained quiet looking at the landscape. "Oi Echizen-" He felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned to see Oishi shaking his head.

"Echizen needs to think Momo. Let's leave him alone for a bit." Oishi said as he gestured Momo back to the group.

"We'll split into two groups; one for the sky and one for the ground. We won't go far but we'll cover more ground like this and hopefully figure out where we are." Ryoga said.

"But what about Echizen?" Kaidou asked.

Everyone was silent as they looked at Echizen. This was his home land; his kingdom. How does he feel? Leaving it for so long and then coming back to it being in a worse condition? They couldn't imagine what he was feeling right now.

"He should be fine… for the most part." Ryoga answered. While the regulars were arguing over who gets to go in which group, Ryoga went over to Echizen to see if he was alright. "Chibisuke, are you alright?"

Echizen didn't look at him, he didn't even acknowledge he was next to him. Hell, Echizen hadn't even so such as moved from that spot since they got there. It was an understatement at the least to say that Ryoga was worried. Echizen would at least spit out a witty comeback about what he was seeing or what he felt.

Ryoga put a hand on his shoulder. "We're going to take a look around to see if we can find out where we are."

Echizen lowered his head and gave Ryoga a barely audible 'Okay' as an answer. He turned away from Ryoga and went to where their stuff was and took Karupin out of his carrier and sat with him on his lap. Ryoga was going to say something to try to cheer him up but that would probably just make things worse.

Ryoga turned back to start walking towards the others. "Jaa, we won't be far. We should be in yelling distance if you need something. We won't be long." He turned from his brother and went to join the others.

"How's he doing?" Oishi asked.

"To be honest, I really don't know but this is really hitting him hard even though he doesn't remember that much of his time here, this is his homeland and he is the rightful ruler of it… just imagine how he must feel come back to it like this." Ryoga said with a sigh.

"Can we do anything to help?" Fuji asked.

Ryoga shook his head. "All we can do is leave him to his thoughts right now. I know, it's not what I want to do either but it needs to be done… have we decided who is going where?"

"Ah; Kikumaru, Kaidou, Inui and I in the sky," Fuji said. "and the others on the ground unless you'd rather be in the sky Ryoga-san."

"Iie, this is fine. I'd actually prefer to say on the ground…" He glanced at his brother. "Well, let's get going. Hopefully it'll be quick."

With that said, everyone ventured away from Echizen looking for some sort of land more or something to tell them where they were. Echizen sat there with Karupin in his lap, stoking his fur. Once everyone was gone, he stood up and sighed.

"_What happened here?" _He thought in a more than a little depressed manor. _"Everything was getting better when we left the last time and now it's worse than before…"_ Karupin looked up at him and meowed. Echizen picked Karupin up and hugged him. "Why did it happen… why does it have to be like this…?" He started to sob into Karupin's fur.

Karupin rubbed his face on Echizen's head and meowed. "Sorry Karupin." He pulled his face from Karupin's fur and wiped his face. Karupin tilted his head then jumped from Echizen's grasp. "Karupin?" He started walking towards the tree line then stopped, meowed at Echizen then continued in. "Oi Karupin…!" He ran after him. He was a bit surprised; with all the trees and foliage all dead and burnt, it was still like a normal forest but with the dark colors and the black sky, it was very difficult to see.

Echizen followed Karupin, not really paying attention to anything in particular except for the cat in front of him. He was lost in his thoughts about what or who could have happened to make everything like this; and the person at the school before they left. Who was that exactly and why did he attack out of the blue and why didn't he aim to kill? He held his shoulder from where the kunai was. There were so many questions that were unanswered. He closed his eyes and sighed once again and when he opened them there was slightly more color than he realized.

He looked up and saw trees that still had leaves on them and were still growing and there were shrubs and bushes too. They may have been burned but they had life. He was dumbfounded. He didn't feel any life left in the land at all and yet it was right in front of him. Karupin meowed at him again from just past the tree line and when he went to him, he was met with a large stone wall that didn't seem to stop no matter which way he looked.

"This is…!" Echizen didn't have to think. He was near if not at his castle. His sadness and depression seemed to fade when he thought that the world was still alright in parts. He looked at Karupin. "How did you…?"

The cat titled his head and meowed. Figures, the animals of the land to have a special bond with it and will find out where to go if needed and with being a divine, Karupin had an even better chance. Echizen stretched his wings and plucked a few feathers then sent them flying to the others alerting them that they needed to get back to their stuff. Echizen then started to go back to their spot with Karupin following to wait for everyone and tell them what Karupin led him to.

When he was in the trees, Karupin stopped and started hissing at something behind them. "Karupin?" Echizen went back to him to see what was wrong and just as he reached him, he transformed into the divine creature he really was.

"What's wrong?!" He tried to see what Karupin was looking at but then kept hearing noises from really anywhere around them. He didn't know what to expect so he kept his defense up, pulled more feathers from his wings and conjured his swords. After that, it seemed to go quiet except for Karupin making noises. He looked around some more to see if anything was there but still couldn't see anything. He let his guard down ever so slightly because it hurt to hold heavy swords with an injured shoulder. That was when something came rushing at him.

* * *

"Minna, did you find anything?" Tezuka called in the general direction of the others on the ground. There were several yells back all basically saying the same thing; no. it was the same with the group in the sky too. No one could find anything remotely close to figuring out where they were. Ryoga let out a heavy sigh and called to everyone both in the air and on the ground so they could regroup.

"No one found anything that could help?" he asked. Everyone shook their heads.

"Mou, there should be like a GPS system here or something." Momo complained.

Ryoga snorted. "Don't I know it."

"What should we do now?" Kikumaru asked while throwing his arms behind his head.

"We could continue looking in a different area and see if we find anything there or-" Before Ryoga could finish his sentence, Echizen's feathers flew down and started spinning in front of everyone.

"_Minna, come back to your things. There's something you need to see."_ When the message finished, the feathers vanished in a puff of golden smoke.

"Was that Echizen?" Kaidou asked.

"Ah, and it seems that he found something. I guess we should head back and see if that will get us anywhere."

Everyone started to make their way back to where they had left all their things. When they got there, they were a little surprised to see that Echizen was gone seeing the start he was in but nonetheless, at least he moved since they left.

"Nya, where did Ochibi go?" Kikumaru complained.

"Karupin seems to be gone too." Inui said.

"Should we go look for them?" Oishi asked.

"No, Chibisuke wanted us to wait for him here so we should probably wait."

They did just that. They waited for Echizen to get back from wherever he went. It seemed like they waited forever until they finally started hearing noises in the trees but then they suddenly stopped.

"What was that noise?" Fuji asked.

"I don't care what it was!" Momo yelled. "I'm tired of waiting! Oi Echizen, if you don't come back here right now, I'm going to drink all the Ponta you have in your backpack!"

The snapping of dead tree branches started again then suddenly, Karupin came flying out of it and crashed into everyone's things and Echizen followed soon after.

"Echizen/Ochibi/Chibisuke!"

"Momo-sempai, if you so much as touch my Ponta," Echizen stood up with his swords raised. "I won't be held responsible for my actions."

Momo was about to send him a comeback but didn't have the chance. There were people, at least that's what they looked like, all dressing in black, rushing out of the tree line and heading for Echizen. He wiped the blood from his mouth and ran towards them swinging his swords.

It didn't take long for everyone else to join in on the fighting seeing that Echizen was greatly outnumbered. The things they were fighting were the height of an average human with a black cloak and two black and very sharp swords and they were more difficult to fight than anything else they have fought before.

"Echizen, what the hell are these things?!" Kaidou yelled out.

"How should I know? They attacked me out of nowhere when I went into the forest!" Echizen yelled back as he cut down one of the creatures.

"A lot of good that did you!" Momo shouted.

"At least _I_ found something!"

"What's that supposed to mean?!"

"If this goes on much longer, they'll be battling themselves." Taka said with a sweat drop.

"But at least Echizen is talking again." Inui said.

The yelling went on between Echizen and Momo until in the middle of a comeback, Echizen let out a yelp of pain. There was another kunai in his shoulder in the same spot. It caused him to drop both of his swords leaving him defenseless.

"Chibisuke!" Ryoga went rushing towards his brother hoping to get to him before the creature in front of him could cut him down but see how far away he was…

Echizen kept dodging the creature's advances until it swung its legs under his causing him to fall on his back.

"_**You came back at the wrong time, Your Highness."**_

Echizen's eyes widened. How did that thing know about that? Besides that, he was completely helpless right now. He couldn't move his arm without wanting to scream and he couldn't really do much with a limp arm anyways.

He glared at the creature in front of him, never breaking eye contact when he raised his sword and began to bring it down. He cringed when blood splattered on him from the creature and was a bit shocked when it fell to his side. He looked up and smirked at a familiar face.

"You're late." He said as he took his comrade's hand as he got pulled to his feet.

The angel in front of him smirked in return. "Gomen, Heika."

* * *

**There. Done. Happy? **_No, you took too long with it. _**I'm sorry it took so long. **_No you're not. _** I'm really not. I've found it's harder to write when you're not using it as an excuse to procrastinate. Plus the heat is frying my brain so blame that. **_I still blame you._

**Well, there's chapter two for you. Two months to write… I know. I'm a very bad person. Getting writers block sucks but I buckled down today and told myself, 'Self, you're not allowed to play TF2 until you finish this chapter for your people.' And that's what I did. I finished it for my people despite it being hotter that Satan's balls right now.**

**I'll be honest, I have no idea when the next one will come out but I keep this open every day so it does get worked on even if it's just one sentence at a time.**

**Sorry for grammar and spelling errors that I might have missed!**

***cough*reviewandcommentinghelpsalot*cough***

**I'll see you guys next chapter!**


	3. Fight Amongst Friends

**Hey everyone. I'm back again. Hopefully this will get out sooner that the second chapter did. I know, it took two months for the last one but that's only because I'm a really bad procrastinator and I don't have homework to procrastinate on so I did it on this story instead. Don't hate me for it! Or do, I really don't care.**

**I'm gonna say this now, I don't remember if I did anything about the ages in the last story but in this one, everyone is older by at least two or three years. Hopefully it will make sense. I don't know how old I made everyone but let's just say third years are all twentyish, second years are eighteen to nineteenish and Echizen is either sixteen or seventeenish :P**

**I'm gonna say this now too; there will be references from **_**Asterisk**_** if you've read it. Give credit where credit is due. Plus I'm too lazy to think up new ideas to use.**

**I wish I owned Prince of Tennis but sadly I DON'T.**

**Okay well here's chapter three hope you like it!**

* * *

"_**You came back at the wrong time, Your Highness."**_

Echizen's eyes widened. How did that thing know about that? Besides that, he was completely helpless right now. He couldn't move his arm without wanting to scream and he couldn't really do much with a limp arm anyways.

He glared at the creature in front of him, never breaking eye contact when he raised his sword and began to bring it down. He cringed when blood splattered on him from the creature and was a bit shocked when it fell to his side. He looked up and smirked at a familiar face.

"You're late." He said as he took his comrade's hand as he got pulled to his feet.

The angel in front of him smirked in return. "Gomen, Heika."

* * *

"Oi, what are you doing?" The angel called to the trees. "Get out here and do your job."

In an instant, a flock of angels came bursting out of the trees and started fighting off the rest of the creatures. After a while, the fighting stopped and everyone joined Echizen and who seemed to be the captain of the group.

"Please bear with it Heika." He said as he pulled the kunai out of Echizen's shoulder. He cringed as the small knife was pulled out seeing as it was the second time it had happened and in such a short time span, the previous wound didn't get to heal much.

"Echizen are you alright?!" Oishi went running over and looked at his shoulder. "Ah! You're injured again!" He looked for his bag which had first aide in it.

"Oishi-sempai, you can use your magic here." Echizen said while took off his shirt to get a better look at the wound. It was deeper since the blade didn't have as much tissue to get through. It was heavily bleeding but Echizen really didn't notice or he seemed not to.

"Ah right!" Oishi rushed back over to him, plucked some feathers from his wings and pressed them onto the wound. It made Echizen cringe but then let out a relieving sigh when the feathers turned into bandages and wrapped themselves around his chest and shoulder.

Ryoga went over to the captain. "Thank you for your help. You came just in time."

"It's the job of the royal guard to protect the royal family Ryoga-dono. We wouldn't call ourselves elite if we didn't." He said with a smirk.

Ryoga raised an eyebrow. "You seem familiar…"

"Aw come now, a year and you already forget me? I'm hurt Ryoga-dono." The figured glanced at Echizen.

"And I thought I had a bad memory." Echizen smirked at Ryoga's glare. "We did have a fun time almost killing each other. Ne, Josiah?"

"Eeeeee-h?!" More people than just Ryoga were surprised. "This is Josiah?! How could you change so much in just a year?!"

He wasn't a naïve nineteen year old anymore; he had scruffy brown hair that was tied back in a short pony tail, his body was more tone so he was actually able to fit the armor and it seemed like he had a very big growth spurt.

"Maybe I've changed a lot in one year for you but this isn't much for three years for me. Remember that time goes by faster here so if it seems like a lot has changed but really, it's the same as it would be."

"Well it's still hard to believe." Kikumaru said with a pout

"How did you find us?" Tezuka asked.

"Actually, we didn't find you; Heika found us." Josiah said with a nod towards Echizen.

Momo went over to Echizen and hit him over the head.

"Itai!" Echizen held the back of his head. "Nandaiyo!"

He then put him in a head lock. "What do you mean 'what was that for'? We were looking through this place for who knows how long and then he's comes along saying that you found them?! What gives?! You knew where they were the whole time didn't you?!"

"I- didn't-" Echizen managed to squeak out. "O-Oi-shi-se-mpa-i"

"Ah Momo! Echizen's already injured enough!" he said trying to make Momo let go. "You could open his wound again!"

Among the childish yelling and please for oxygen, everyone else tried to figure out how they were really found.

"How did Echizen find you exactly?" Fuji asked.

"I guess you could say that the cat actually found us." Josiah looked at Karupin who was now latched onto Momo face trying to help free his master. "One of the scouts from the wall noticed an animal coming from the forest with someone walking behind him. He watched as His Majesty's wings expanded then rushed to me to say what he saw. I don't know how the cat found his way there but be thankful for it. There's no telling what could've happened if we didn't arrive when we did."

"We are, very grateful. We probably would've been done for if-" Ryoga was cut off by loudened yells.

"Oi Echizen! Get back here!" Echizen had gotten free of Momo's grasp. "I'm not through with you yet!"

"Momo, calm down!" Oishi said putting himself and the cat in his arms in between the two.

Echizen looked at Momo. Why did he care about that so much? Was it really that big of a deal to him? Momo had to have Taka and Kaidou to keep him from latching himself back onto him. Something didn't feel right. Momo's wings were suddenly out knocking Taka and Kaidou to the ground and he gave a death glare to Echizen.

"Momo what's gotten into you?" Kikumaru asked as he ran up to him. He tried to grab him but was punched to the ground.

"Eiji!" Oishi went over to him to see if he was alright.

Kikumaru frowned. "Momo! What gives?!"

Momo didn't pay any attention to him because all his focus was on Echizen.

"Sempai…" Echizen stared at him. He could see a very faint dark glow emanating from his body. _"What is that?"_ Before he could blink, Momo had his sword out and was rushing at him. He barely had enough time to jump to the side to avoid the attack and land on the ground.

"Momo!" Several yells were coming from the group and the angels surrounding the area.

"What the hell is he doing?!" Fuji's open eyes were locked on to him.

Momo again went in to try to hit Echizen but missed. Echizen's dodge was slower since he used his injured arm to propel himself from the ground. He landed on it causing a wave of pain to go through his body causing him to freeze for a second but that second was all Momo needed. He lunged himself at Echizen once more preparing to impact and he did, not with Echizen but another sword. Josiah was standing in front of Momo with his sword drawn.

"Momoshiro-dono, what is the meaning of this?" he asked as he parried Momo's sword and sent him back a few steps. "Why do you attack him?"

Of course, Momo didn't answer but threw himself back towards them. He thrust his sword at Josiah and was met with another clang but was able to throw his sword away.

"_He was able to disarm me…!"_ Josiah was in shock. He was one of the greatest swordsmen in their world yet he was disarmed by a mere high school student. While lost in his thoughts for a few seconds, Momo roundhouse kicked him to the side so he now had a clear shot at Echizen.

He still didn't know what to think. Why was his best friend attacking him out of the blue and what's that dark glow around his body? Momo advanced yet again but this time, rather than jump to the side, Echizen jumped straight up and started flying. He couldn't really think of anything else to do. He wasn't in the best condition for fighting nor did he want to fight, not with his best friend.

Momo followed Echizen into the air. He was about to attack again but was held back by Ryoga.

"Momoshiro-kun! Get a hold of yourself!" Ryoga had his arms looped under Momo's. When he started struggling, the other regulars flew up and tried to restrain him.

"What's making him so angry?!" Taka yelled amongst the commotion.

"My data is inconclusive at this point." Inui grunted in response.

Echizen just kept watching as he floated in front of everyone. He needed to find out what that dark glow was but wasn't in any form to get close to Momo. His arm started bleeding again. Just as he had thought of what to do, Momo was able to fling everyone off of him and to the ground. He plucked feathers from his wings and started throwing them at Echizen. He dodged but heard the yelling of everyone on the ground telling him to look behind him. Momo's feathers were circling around to get him from behind.

He couldn't just stay still. As he dodged the feathers once again and noticing Momo lunging at him, he started to fly towards the trees in the direction of the wall. Apparently since that was where Josiah had come from, it might be a good place to try to stop whatever was happening to Momo.

"Chibisuke!" Ryoga called to him but he was already gone with Momo on his tail.

"Ryoga-dono, he's most likely heading to the wall." Josiah said.

"We should to then! Something's wrong with Momo!" Kikumaru yelled.

"Everybody get your things and let's go!" Ryoga grabbed his and his brother's things and went flying to catch up with them.

* * *

His shoulder hurt; it was bleeding more than it should have been despite being stabbed in the same place twice. He looked behind himself just in time to dodge another barrage of feathers from Momo. He then proceeded to take out a feather of his own, whisper something onto it then send it flying into the sky. The dead forest was getting close to an end since he could see bits of color beneath him.

After another minute or two of flying, he was finally able to see the wall. He quickened his flying pace as it got closer then felt several stings in his arm. He looked to see Momo's feathers sticking out of it but it wasn't like it should have felt. He suddenly felt weak and very tired. He knew that this was the doing of whatever was possessing him but he kept going; he needed to get into the walls to make this plan work. His pace had begun to get slower as he got nearer and Momo was getting closer. After he was just over the wall, Momo slammed into him and they both went tumbling to the ground.

They hit the ground with a rather loud thud then rolled to a stop. Echizen was on his back and closed his eyes and grunted as he held his arm in pain. If he didn't know better, he might have broken it. He opened his eyes to see Momo standing over him. Before he could do anything, Momo sat on him and began to strangle him. He tried to get him to let go but he was weak and couldn't really do much with a gimp arm.

"Momo- sem-pai-"

"_**Your sempai isn't here at the moment."**_ There was a voice intertwined with Momo's.

"W-Who are y-you?" he managed to croak out.

"_**Does that really matter right now? You should be less worried about who I am and more worried about what will happen if you don't free yourself from my grip."**_ Their gripped around Echizen's neck tightened. _**"What are you going to do? You don't want to hurt your friend but you might have to if you want me to go away."**_

Echizen smirked. "D-Don't want to h-hurt my f-friend? You're more o-of a baka t-than he is.

"_**You think this is funny, boy?"**_

Echizen's lungs were on fire. He just hoped his theory was correct and his plan would work. "D-Don't you?"

The grip tightened even more. _**"I thought that they said you would be fun to kill but this was a complete let down. Heh, at least I'll be recognized when the little prince dies by my hands."**_

Echizen smirked yet again. "You'll n-never be recog-nized" His vision was almost completely black and his hearing was all but gone. "If you n-never… g-get the j-ob… done…" His voice faded and his eyes shut. The last thing he did before the last of his strength gave out was snap his fingers.

"_**Pitiful."**_ He gave Echizen's neck one last tight squeeze before he finally took his hand away. _**"Weakling."**_ He got off and starred at the lifeless body as everyone else start to fly to where they were. _**"I don't understand what was so h-"**_

"Ochibi/Echizen/Chibisuke!" No one liked to see a lifeless body on the ground. Just as they landed and started yelling and running at them, there was a crash of lightning or at least what seemed like lightning and it went and hit Momo. Everyone watched as he slumped to his hand and his knees and a black smoke emerged from his body and started to scream.

"Oi, what is that thing?" Kaidou asked.

"I've only seen something like that in manga before." Fuji said.

"_**AAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUU-" **_The sounds that were coming from it were ear splitting. _**"HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?!"**_

"The answer is simple:" They all looked to see Echizen standing in a slumped position rubbing his neck. "You're weak and _I'm_ not."

If it had a clear face, Echizen guessed that it was glaring at him. It let out another ear piercing shriek and lunged at Echizen but a feather plunged itself into its back and it shattered into dust. Momo was still on this hands and knees so he went over and crotched in front of him.

"Momo-sempai…" He held his arm and waited for an answer.

Momo had a completely clueless look on his face when he looked at Echizen and his surroundings. "Ah! Did we figure out where we are? Waa, this place is pretty. Oi Echizen, how did we-"

Echizen punched the top of his head. "BAKA SEMPAI!"

"OW, THAT HURT. WHAT WAS THAT FOR?! AND WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO YOU?!"

"You happened to him Momo." Fuji said as the rest of them joined.

"What are you talking about Fuji-sempai?" Momo asked as he turned and stood rubbing his head.

"You don't remember?" Kaidou asked.

"Maybe Ochibi hit him too hard…" Kikumaru said.

"What are you guys talking about? What happened?" Momo pleaded. "What did I do?!"

Everyone avoided eye contact. Taka was the only one to do something. He rubbed the back of his head and pointed at Echizen. Momo turned and saw Echizen being looked over by Oishi and Ryoga. He didn't realize how severe his injuries were; the side of his head and right arm were covered in blood and in addition to the kunai injuries in his shoulder, it might have also been dislocated since his arm wasn't broken. Not to mention the bruising that was becoming visible on his neck.

"I… did that…?" Momo's voice was shaky and guilt ridden.

"Technically yes but it seems as you were being possessed my something." Inui said as he adjusted his glasses.

"What?" Momo didn't want to believe that he had injured his best friend so much.

Josiah went up to Ryoga. "Ryoga-dono, it would be wise if we sorted all this out in a safer environment."

"What's wrong with here?" Ryoga asked. "Isn't this a safe environment?"

"Well yes but just because we are inside the wall doesn't make it safe. We should be safe if we get inside the castle."

"Where is it?"

Josiah told Ryoga the location of the castle and the few camps that were on the way were they could stop at. While doing so, Oishi was busy mother henning Echizen to the max.

"Oishi-sempai, its not-"

"Echizen, if you tell me this is not a big deal or there is no need to worry…" He was cleaning the blood from Echizen's face and wrapping bandages around his arm. "I don't know what I'll do and I don't want to find out so do us both a favor and don't say it."

He gave a small laugh as a reply. He caught sight of Momo looking at him with a horrified and guilt ridden expression. Echizen sighed. He moved from Oishi and went over to Momo. It almost looked as Momo was scared for Echizen to come over as if he might do something to him again.

"Momo-sempai." Echizen looked right at him and crossed his arms.

"Echizen… I-I want to say th-" he didn't finish because of a punch to the shoulder and swift kick to the shin. "ITAI!"

"Now we're even." He said with a smirk. "I don't want you to be moping around feeling guilty about this when you clearly weren't responsible."

Momo returned his smirk with one of his own. "That still doesn't give you a good reason to hit me! You could've broken my arm!"

"I could not."

Momo's smile turned devious. "I guess you're right. You're short. I bet you can't reach things on the top shelf at your house."

A vein popped. "What was that?"

Momo gave a cheeky grin. "You heard me."

Echizen lunged at Momo but he jumped away and started running.

"You're slow too!"

Echizen started running after Momo then started flying. "I'll show you who's slow!"

"Oi that's cheating!" Momo brought out his wings and took to the sky.

"Mou, you guys are having all the fun!" Kikumaru complained as he too flew after them. "I wanna play tag too!"

"Well, at least it looks like things are back to normal." Inui said.

"What happened to anyways?" Tezuka asked as Ryoga and Josiah walked towards them.

"We need to check a few things before we can say for sure what happened to Momoshiro-kun." Ryoga said.

"Check where?" Kaidou asked.

"Where else? We're going to check in the Archives underneath the castle." Josiah said.

"Well, where's the castle?" Taka asked while looking around.

Josiah smirked and snapped his fingers. A bright light flashed and then the castle appeared in front of everyone. It was still a little ways away but it appeared nonetheless.

"Let me be the one to welcome to your new home away from home. Welcome to Heaven's Dragon Castle."

* * *

**Finally. At least this chapter was done sooner than the others I guess and it's ever so slightly longer too. Be happy with it.**

**Well, did you like it?**_** Why did you do that? Don't make Momo do that again.**_** We'll see. I honestly had no clue that it was going to go that way but, meh, what can you do? It will help the plot I guess or something like that. I feel like I had something else to tell you and I'll probably remember it after I upload this chapter. Oh well.**

**Forgive the grammar and spelling mistakes that I most certainly missed.**

**Help the writer progress! Review and tell me what you though!**

**See ya laters!**


	4. Recognition

**Yo! What's up? I've been pitting this off. I don't know why but I'm doing it now! I got back into writing my TF2 story and that's why this one is being put off like always, it's always open so I do work on it more often than not.**

**I really don't want to have to be the type of writer that says 'I want this many reviews for the next chapter' but… come on guys! I need feedback! It helps a lot!**

**I'm gonna say, I only got three hours of sleep last night so I'm running on fumes right now. Not my fault if the story seems weirder that normal.**_** But it's your story. Everything is your fault.**_** Shut it.**

**Also, I don't remember if I made it clear how Echizen angel parents died but there will be a bit of that here and there. And I made Tezuka's wings a different color so suck it. They're now Byzantium. **_**What the hell is that?**_** It's a shade of purple. **

**Blah blah I don't own Prince of Tennis whatever.**

**Here's chapter 4. Enjoy!**

* * *

"We need to check a few things before we can say for sure what happened to Momoshiro-kun." Ryoga said.

"Check where?" Kaidou asked.

"Where else? We're going to check in the Archives underneath the castle." Josiah said.

"Well, where's the castle?" Taka asked while looking around.

Josiah smirked and snapped his fingers. A bright light flashed and then the castle appeared in front of everyone. It was still a little ways away but it appeared nonetheless.

"Let me be the one to welcome to your new home away from home. Welcome to Heaven's Dragon Castle."

* * *

"_Dragon_ Castle?" Taka asked.

"I'm actually not too sure why it has that name to be honest." Josiah said as he began to lead the others to the castle. "There was a rumor that it's able to capture a dragon but there haven't been dragons here in quite some time."

"Saa, maybe we'll find the answers in the archives." Fuji said.

"That we shall Fuji-dono. But until we get there, what will we do about those three?" He pointed to the sky where Kikumaru and Momo were now chasing Echizen around yelling about really stupid things.

"Oi!" Ryoga called to them. "Get down here! We're going to go to the castle."

"Mou Ochibi! Why are you so fast?" Kikumaru whined.

"Echizen, you're paying for the next time we go to The Burger Joint when I catch you!" Momo yelled.

Kikumaru and Momo paid no attention to the people yelling at them but Echizen seemed to hear. He looked at his brother and shrugged. He plucked a feather and threw it at his things. They were encased in a bubble then vanished. "Sempai, if you can catch me," he stopped in front of the two which caused them to stop as well. "I'll pay for the next week we go to The Burger Joint."

"You're going to be broke at the end of the week." Momo's eyes glinted. He lunged at Echizen but was surprised when he vanished. "Ehh?! No fair Echizen! That's cheating!"

"You two get down here or else you'll run until you pass out." Tezuka commanded as he and the others went to get their things.

"Tezuka! Ochibi disappeared." Kikumaru said in a slight panic as he and Momo landed.

"He's fine. He's probably already at the castle." Ryoga said grabbing his things and putting Karupin on this shoulder.

"What!" Momo dropped his things. "He skipped out on my getting free burgers for a week!"

"Ma, maybe if we hurry and get there, you'll still be able to get your burgers." Taka said.

"Kawamura-dono is right. We should hurry to the castle." Josiah said. "It may be his castle but things could still go wrong there."

"And we don't need any more trouble for today." Ryoga said. "Let's get going."

"Hai." Everyone gathered their things and started going towards the castle.

* * *

When Echizen zapped his things them himself away, he actually just teleported into the castle. He and his bags plopped onto the ground in a room somewhere with a rather loud thud. The room was rather big; the curtains were drawn letting the light in, the bed was way bigger than his, all in all it was a room fit for a king. He took the opportunity to change from his blood soaked clothes. He looked at his shoulder in the mirror. It looked as it had stopped bleeding for the most part but the bandages would need to be changed again at some point.

When he was done, he was in a tank and pants. He left his things in the room and went to explore the castle. Sure it was his but not being there since he was a baby, how would you expect him to remember? The halls were beautiful, red carpet on the ground; tables with vases on top of them with flowers, paintings lined the walls, it even smelled nice. He went to a window to look around. Apparently he was in the upper part of the castle considering how high he was. He hopped onto the ledge and out the window to the balcony below. He wasn't expecting to hear a slight yell from behind but when he looked, he saw a servant with something looking quite surprised about the boy in front of him.

"Yo." Echizen gave a slight wave then again hopped below to the next balcony. He heard the servant run off yelling about an intruder but didn't really pay attention and proceeded to keep hopping to lower balconies until he was on the ground. He went around for a bit until he reached the garden. He remembered a bit about how he and his mother would be out there and about how he got Karupin from what Ryoga told him.

He laid down in the grass and just watched the sky. He missed this feeling; being stress free, not having to worry about anything but the feeling was cut short when someone approached him.

"Oi, you're trespassing." A man in armor said. "How did you get in here anyways?"

Echizen raised an eyebrow. "Does it matter? I'm not doing anything to anyone."

"You're on royal grounds and you hardly look like royalty."

"Neither do you but you're here so why does it matter if I'm here?" Echizen laid back down. "Besides, I heard the prince of this land is missing; not to mention rude, arrogant, cocky, extremely annoying, never listens to anyone, super lazy, never gets any work done, sleeps all day-"

"That's enough!" The man drew is sword. "I will not stand here and tolerate a child belittling our prince."

Echizen scoffed. "Then by all means, take a seat. And I'm not a child." He looked up at the man. "Maybe you should take a seat, I mean, you look like you're about to keel over from old age any second now."

That did it. He brought the sword down with all means of injuring or killing Echizen but even in his already injured state, Echizen was too agile for him. He hoped out of the way and started running from the garden.

"You're going to have to be faster than that if you want to catch me." He yelled as he rounded a corner. "Ojii-san." Adding a taunt for good measure.

"You little brat!" The soldier brought out his wings which, like most of the citizens there, were white or an off shade of white which made them look like a generic angel. He flew after around the corner after Echizen but was a bit surprised to see that he wasn't there. He called over another guard that was doing his rounds and told him to pass it along that there was a young boy that was intruding in the palace and to capture him if found. When that was done, they parted ways and he went to search in other areas of the castle hoping to find him.

* * *

When Echizen had rounded the corner, he took the opportunity and quickly flew to another open window. It led to another hallway which looked identical to the other. He took the opportunity to keep looking around until everyone else got there and he was actually a little surprised they weren't there already. The castle didn't look that far from where they were but that is possible to how big it really is.

He followed the hall and took a look in the rooms as he passed, not really caring if he was seen but did hide if there were guards. He didn't feel like being captured right now. Most of the rooms he looked in were basically bedrooms for guests or knights and such. He followed the hall to a rather large set of doors. He went through with widened eyes when he realized where he was; he was in the throne room.

He entered the room with a cautious step. It was beautiful in there; a balcony that went atop the whole room, huge windows with some being covered by velvet curtains, pillars lining the room but the thing that caught Echizen's eye was the throne itself or more so what was behind it. He went up to it and placed his hands onto it as if hoping to remember something about his real parents. He sighed and felt a bit guilty in not remembering them; after all they were his parents.

He took his hand from the chair and looked at the painting behind it; a painting of his parents. He was glad to be able to see their faces but still felt guilty that he could remember nothing about them. He wanted to remember their voices and feel their emotions again as he once did. He wanted to be able to speak with them, to tell them thank you for what they had done for him. From what Ryoga had told him, his father had saved him once when he was an infant and died going it then saved him yet again the last time they were here. He didn't remember how is mother died and he really didn't want to know but it would help him have a better understanding of everything if he knew so he made a mental note to ask Ryoga at some point.

Echizen went back to the front of the throne and sat in it so his legs were draped off one side and his head off the other. How long was it going to take the others to get there? Not tthat he really cared but still. He sat in the throne for a while until a guard came in to check then hollered at the others that he had found the boy they were looking for. He stayed put when they came rushing in and the older guard from earlier came in. while Echizen was sitting in the throne on one end; the guards were in the middle of the room.

"What do you think you're doing?" He asked in a not too polite tone.

"What does it look like?" Echizen answered in a snarky tone. "I'm sitting."

"You little bastard. I've had enough of your lip and disrespect to the royal name. Catch him!" The eldest guard yelled as he signaled for his troops to capture Echizen.

Echizen merely sighed. He was tired of playing chase. Right now, he wanted all the others to be here so he could cuddle with Karupin in bed. As the guards came closer and were in grabbing distance, Echizen stood from the throne and just as a few were about to tackle him, he vanished from sight. The head guard growled in frustration. "Well don't just stand there, find him!"

"Sir!" One of the guards near a window called out. "He's there!" He pointed outside for everyone to see. Echizen was walking towards the front gate which was quite a ways away with his hands behind his.

"How the hell did he get out there so fast?!" The commander was more than frustrated. _'What kind of magic is he using?'_ "After him!" He called out. While the group of guards ran from the room, the commander opened a window and stared running towards Echizen.

* * *

'_This is getting boring.'_ Echizen thought to himself. _'Where is everyone already?'_ He made his way to the front gate and saw everyone making their way towards the entrance. He huffed and gave a small smile. _'Took you long enough.' _He wondered why they weren't flying but shrugged it off as laziness.

They started shouting and waving to him but he more or less ignored them. He turned around to see if he could go and cause more mischief until they were actually there but was tackled to the ground and rolled a bit only to land on his stomach with his injured arm behind his back and a heavy weight sitting on him.

"You cocky little brat."

Echizen sighed and held back a grunt from the pressure on his shoulder which he was sure it had started bleeding again. "A simple tap on the shoulder would have sufficed." He said in an annoyed tone. "And now you've gone and gotten my clothes dirty."

"A simple tap huh?" The guard was more that annoyed with Echizen. "How's this?" He put the palm of the hand not holding him onto the bandaged shoulder and pressed.

Echizen's eyes began to water but he refused to let tears run down his face, not in front of this man. "**That hurts.**"

"Does it now?" He put more pressure on it making Echizen let out a small yell. "Where's your precious vanishing magic now, gaki?"

"I don't need to use magic against you." He proceeded to drive both of his heels into the man's back then swung his free arm into the side of his face making him lean enough to one side for Echizen to roll out from underneath him on the other. He sat cross legged in front of him and rubbed his shoulder. When he brought his hand away, he noticed blood on it and frowned. "You're going to pay if this shirt gets blood on it."

The older man got up, unsheathed his sword, knelt down to Echizen's level and placed the sword on his neck. "Oh really? What's stopping me from running you through right now?"

Echizen counted on his fingers. "Three major things I suppose."

"Enlighten me." He pressed his sword harder against his neck.

"One, you wouldn't know what to do with yourself if you killed me. Two, you're incapable of killing me- it's just physically impossible with how old you are." Echizen smirked and the extra pressure on his neck. "Three" He pointed behind his back with his thumb. "They won't let you."

He looked over Echizen's shoulder to see a group of people rushing to the scene and he recognizes one of them as his commanding officer. "J-Josiah Taichou!"

"Yukio." Josiah stood behind Echizen with crossed arms and an anger look. "What do you think you're doing?" He gestured to Echizen being helped up by Oishi. "Picking on children is not knightly." He smirked at Echizen and received a glare in response.

"Sir! I found him in the royal garden and tried to apprehend him but he escaped. I've only just now been able to capture him." He crossed his arms.

"It still doesn't give you any reason for you to have your sword at his throat!" Everyone was a bit surprised to hear such a spiteful tone come from _Oishi's_ mouth. "_And_ reopening his already injured shoulder."

"You watch your tone." Yukio hissed at Oishi. "I am a Knight of Dragon Castle. And who are you? More refugees?"

"Che. You would be so lucky." Kaidou hissed.

"_You're _the one that needs to watch your tone with them, Yukio." Josiah said.

Yukio gave him a confused look. "Sir?"

"Ryoga-dono, if you please."

Ryoga stepped in front of everyone and dropped his bags. He placed one hand in front of his chest and the other behind his back and slowly bowed allowing his sea green wings to appear. "Echizen Ryoga, yoroshiku." He used the hand behind his back to signal for someone else to do the same as he did.

Tezuka stepped up and bowed the same way allowing his byzantium wings to slowly appear behind him. "Tezuka Kunimitsu."

Yukio was taken aback; he had never seen wings that weren't white except for Leon's silver ones. One by one, all the regulars lined up and greeted him with a bow so their wings were exposed. Oishi with teal, Fuji magenta, Taka gold, Kaidou maroon, Inui hazel, Kikumaru dark pink and Momo light navy blue. He also didn't want to believe the names he was hearing.

"Sir, are these people-" He was cut off when Josiah raised a hand to quiet him.

Both of them looked at Echizen who was now standing and coddling Karupin in his arms. He looked up from the fluffy cat to the two men looking at him. He huffed. "Why do I have to do it? Can't you just tell him? This is tedious."

"Heika, the best proof is seeing with your own eyes." Josiah answered.

'_Heika?'_ The thought just hit him. "Sir, do you mean to tell me that-"

"I'm _not_ bowing to him." Echizen set Karupin on the ground, crossed his arms and brought out his sun colored wings. "Echizen Ryoma. _Prince of Angels._"

* * *

**Welp, there it is… tell me how ya feel about it!**

**I do actually feel bad not getting this out faster for everyone but I'm slowly losing motivation to write but it's weird because I always get ideas during the night and that's when I actually write it but fear not! It's slowly getting done.**

**This would've been out sooner but the internet is being an ass and deciding not to work but I'll get it out as soon as I can. Forgive the laziness of not wanting to go back and check for mistakes but its 1:23 and I just don't want to.**

**Please review and comment and give me ideas and stuff and point out mistakes and things!**

**See ya later!**


	5. Things Explained

**Hey. Yo. How you doin? That's nice. Glad to hear it. Unless it's something bad. Then I hope you feel better.**

**Hey guys. I hope that you're enjoying the story so far. I'm having fun writing it in all hours of the morning when I should be sleeping but you need your story! I will gladly give up sleep for that! The internet is still being retarded is I don't know when this will be up but hopefully it will be fixed by the time I'm done… actually I'm just a lazy piece of shit so go figure. Hopefully this will be out for everyone before the ninth of this month. I'm going to be on a trip to Japan for two weeks without my computer so I won't be able to work on it.**

**Yes. If anyone has played Skyrim, you would've noticed the reference with the castle and dragon or whatnot. And I've noticed I have a thing for shoulder injuries… maybe it's because I have permanently injured shoulders myself. **_**Write the story woman. **_** Whatever.**

**Let's see… ummm… I guess I still don't own Prince of Tennis. Goddamnit.**

**Well, here's chapter five. Hope ya like it!**

* * *

"Sir, are these people-" He was cut off when Josiah raised a hand to quiet him.

Both of them looked at Echizen who was now standing and coddling Karupin in his arms. He looked up from the fluffy cat to the two men looking at him. He huffed. "Why do I have to do it? Can't you just tell him? This is tedious."

"Heika, the best proof is seeing with your own eyes." Josiah answered.

'_Heika?'_ The thought just hit him. "Sir, do you mean to tell me that-"

"I'm _not_ bowing to him." Echizen set Karupin on the ground, crossed his arms and brought out his sun colored wings. "Echizen Ryoma. _Prince of Angels._"

* * *

"Wouldn't it technically be _king_ now?" Ryoga asked as he lifted from his and crossed his arms.

"Che. King sounds like too much." Echizen retorted as he picked Karupin up again, slightly wincing from his shoulder. "Can we get inside now? I would like to sleep." He pet Karupin, let him wings vanish and started walking to the opening to the castle.

Yukio stood there dumbfounded. There was no way that a brat like that was the prince of this kingdom but the proof stood in front of him. The things that were said among everyone who stayed in the castle and even in the town behind it, they were all describing Echizen perfectly; the green tinted hair, the golden cat-like eyes, the cat that always seems to be with him. But most of all, the color of his wings, that's what did it. No other angel in recorded history had wings the color of the sun but yet, there he was.

He felt horrible, lower than dirt. There was the ruler of their kingdom and he had threatened and injured him like a lowly demon. Threating royalty was considered treason and the punishment could get as rough as to go as far as death. He had only seen it once when he was very young. Apparently, someone from a neighboring kingdom threatened the 'oh so young prince' and his servant or adopted older brother and the king wouldn't hear it. Usually, people were just exiled and it shocked everyone greatly to see the king actually order for someone to be executed.

What was going to become of him? Not only did he threaten Echizen but he injured him further. Would he carry out the task of execution or banishment? He stood in horror thinking about what could become of him that he didn't notice Echizen walk past him with the regulars following after. Once he came back to reality, he quickly turned to speak to Echizen but Ryoga placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Don't bother." He said in an amused tone. "You're safe with him. He may have a cocky personality but he's got a really kind heart. He doesn't let anything bad happen to his friends or allies."

Ryoga ran ahead to catch up with everyone else and left Yukio standing there lost in thought once again.

"Oi." Josiah clapped him on the back. "Don't think anything of it. I did the same thing the first time I met him. I even asked him to kill me because of my insolence and he refused." He looked at the castle and smiled. "This land will be safe in their hands."

Yukio smiled. "Ah, I'm sure it will be."

"Sumimasen!" Fuji called back to them in a sing songy voice. When the two of them looked, they noticed the group surrounded by guards. "Could you do something about this?"

"O-Oi, stand down. Let them through." Yukio called to his battalion. The men backed off and away from the group. "From this day forward, you will treat all of these people like you would a commanding officer."

Can we not do this now?" Echizen complained. His shoulder hurt immensely and he was more than a little tired. He turned to Ryoga. "He knows where I've chosen to stay. You can follow him." He pointed to Yukio then vanished again taking Karupin with him.

Ryoga sighed. "Why doesn't he act like a normal person for once and just walk like the rest of us?"

"Mou, why does Ochibi keep disappearing?" Kikumaru complained.

"I never knew Echizen could do something like that. He never did it the last time we were here." Taka said.

"What did Echizen mean when he said you know where he is?" Tezuka asked as Yukio and Josiah joined the group to lead them into the castle.

"Ah, I found him in the garden when he first arrived." Yukio answered as he flung a hand towards the guards in order to dismiss them. "Either there or the room of the previous king from what a servant told me."

"In any case he's in the castle." Josiah added. "We'll show you to your rooms to get settled in then meet up again to discuss the things that have been going on the past three years." Everyone nodded and followed the two to the castle entrance.

* * *

Echizen landed with another thud on the floor in the room he claimed. He had to figure out how to fix that landing. Karupin jumped from his arms and went to the bed. Echizen stood up, rubbed his backside then did the same. His shoulder hurt way beyond what it should. Maybe he really did dislocate it. He took off his shirt to fully see the damage; the bandages were all red and brown from the dirt. He couldn't even tell if it was bleeding still or not. He sighed and got more gauze from his bag.

When he took off the dirty bandages, he huffed in annoyance. He didn't think he could bleed that much from a shoulder wound but apparently he could. He cleaned the wound and the area around it and just as he was going to start wrapping new, clean gauze on it, he saw something that didn't belong. There were little black lines coming from it that weren't there the last time he changed his bandages.

"Oh great." He said sarcastically. Ryoga was surely going to complain about this and Oishi… Echizen didn't want to think about what Oishi would do if he saw them. He touched them to see if it was just caked on dry blood but that was a big mistake. He dropped to his knees and gripped his shoulder. His whole body started pulsating and the amount of pain that went through him was something he wouldn't wish on the worst person he could think of. He thought he heard someone say something but seeing as there was no one in the room, he must have hallucinated it.

Just like that, the pain was gone. The initial pain from the wound was still there but the other was gone. He went to the bed again and sat on it. He pulled his hand which was now covered in blood, away from the wound. He frowned. He cleaned his hand then the wound again and finally wrapped it up. Hopefully the bleeding would stop and Oishi wouldn't scold him. He fell backwards on the bed and into thought. First there was when he was attacked at school, the humanoid creatures from the forest, the thing that took control of Momo and now the black lines from his shoulder. He thought it would be better if no one else saw those.

What Ryoga said was true though; he was now the king of this land. How could he handle that? He didn't know the first thing about ruling anything except a tennis court. But he had to do something. With all the things that happened, someone needed to keep the people safe. He let out a long, exhausted sigh. He needed sleep. Karupin climbed onto his torso and laid down. Echizen felt a moment of relaxation sweep over his body, one that he hasn't felt in a very long time. He started to pet Karupin and let his eyes close and drifted to sleep.

* * *

"And this is the floor where everyone will be staying." Josiah said as the finally reached one of the upper most floors of the castle.

"That- was horrible." Momo complained.

"Why did we have- to walk up all those stairs?" Kikumaru let his bags drop to the floor.

"Saa, I think it was easy." Fuji said with a smile.

"Well not all of us are sadomasochists' sempai." Kaidou mumbled under his breath.

"Perhaps that means we should increase training when we get back." Inui said. "What do you think Tezuka?"

"Ah. That would work just fine." Tezuka answered.

Josiah sweat dropped as the regulars started complaining about not needing more training. "A-Anyways, these are mainly guest rooms so they should almost be vacant so feel free to choose which ever one you like."

Oishi, Kikumaru, Momo, Kaidou and Taka all went running to claim the room they wanted while Inui, Fuji and Tezuka calmly went to choose.

"Ryoga-dono, will you be choosing a room with them also or would you like one prepared for you?" Josiah asked.

"Iie, that's alright but… just being here, it brings back memories." Ryoga looked around with a small smile. He remembered running up and down the halls with Echizen when they were little and hiding from the servants in all the rooms. Considering the amount of abuse and destruction it went through, everyone was able to get it relatively back to how it first was. "The one at the end, that's-"

Yukio and Josiah looked towards the end of the hall and gave sympathetic smiles. "Ah, that was the chamber of the king and queen."

"I thought so." Ryoga whispered to himself. "Jaa, I'll take the one next to it seeing as Chibisuke is probably already in there." He smiled and heading to his room.

"Taichou, should I inform every one of the guests we have staying here?" Yukio asked.

"Ah, we wouldn't want a repeat of what happened now would we?" Josiah teased.

Yukio deadpanned. "T-Taichou…"

"Just get going." He pushed him in the direction they came from. "I'm going to be in assembly room. Have someone stationed to lead everyone there when they're ready."

"Ryoukai." He saluted and went running down the hall and down the stairs.

Just then Ryoga came back out of his room. "Ryoga-dono, I have business to attend to but there will be someone waiting for you when everyone is ready." Josiah said as he turned to exit the same was Yukio did.

"Thanks." Ryoga waved to his as he descended the stairs then looked at everything around him. He missed when he lived there. It seemed like everything was simpler even with the fact that he was considered a member of the royal family and helped with things containing the safety of the land. While part of him wished he could go back in time and stop all that from happening, the other part was happy because of all the new people he had met. He let out a sigh. "Mataku." He didn't know what to think or what he was feeling at that moment so he decided to pay his brother a visit.

He went to the room Echizen was staying in and knocked. When there was no answer, Ryoga opened the door and smiled when he saw his brother; laying horizontal on the bed shirtless with his leg hanging off, his uninjured arm over his head and Karupin asleep on his stomach.

"Really, you're going to catch a cold if you sleep like that." It was like when he was little and just old enough to sleep in an actual bed. He would always sleep with his legs hanging off for no particular reason. He missed when they were little. After his father died, Ryoga stayed with Echizen and they both ended up sleeping like that.

His happy thoughts slowly disappeared when his eyes locked on the injured shoulder. The bandages were slightly pink from blood but he was glad to know that the bleeding stopped. He said the first time was at school and the second was when they were in the forest and there was no sign of anyone to blame for the injuries. Whatever this new threat was, it wasn't something to be taken lightly; and when it possessed Momo. It was like Fuji said; he's never seen that anywhere other than manga either. They had to figure out what all of this was in order to find out how to stop it.

Echizen stirred slightly on the bed. Ryoga decided to let him sleep because he knew he really didn't sleep the night before. He didn't know what but he was up really late reading something. He took the liberty to adjust him so he was lying on the bed the proper way. He figured that he could sleep now and just be filled in on everything later or be awake and now be listening to everything and still need to be filled in later. Either way, someone was going to have to speak with him.

He gave Karupin a pet then left the room. All the regulars were wondering about in the hall and going in and out of each other's rooms looking at everything trying to get a feel for the place but at the same time, having a slight feeling of nostalgia.

"Waa, these curtains are really nice." Taka was running his hands on the silk like curtains that covered the windows on the opposite wall.

"Nya, who cares about the curtains. Look at the windows." Kikumaru exclaimed while pressing his face up against the glass.

"You need big curtains for big windows sempai." Kaidou said.

"Ryoga-san." Inui was the first to see him.

"Minna, I was told we're supposed to find someone to lead us to Josiah-kun to discuss what has happened." He told them as he went walking towards the end of the hall.

They all started to follow him but when Momo asked a question. "Ryoga-san, where's Echizen?'

"Is he alright? Is his shoulder still bleeding? I hope it's not dislocated." Oishi slightly panicked which made everyone else sweat drop.

Ryoga scratched the back of his head. "He's fine but I thought it would be better to let him sleep. To be honest, he didn't get must sleep last night, if any at all. If you add that to everything that's happened already, I think he deserves some sleep."

"What about the discussion?" Fuji asked.

"I thought about that too. It's either we wake him now, have him fall asleep in there and need to explain it to him later or just let him sleep now and explain it to him later. I figured we might as well let him sleep."

Everyone shrugged and agreed. Either way they would have to talk to him later about it. They also tensed a bit at the thought of him not sleeping. They thought about all the times when they saw him at school, how drained and pale he looked. How long has he not been sleeping? They were all thinking pretty much the same thing but snapped to reality when they heard a voice call for them.

"Kizoku, if you'll follow me." One of the guards had come to escort them.

The group followed the guard down all the stairs to which more than a few of them were complaining about being tired to which Tezuka threatened then with running up and down them if they kept it up. They went through a few halls until they ended up to a massive doorway which lead into what Josiah had called the assembly room. The room was filled with maps lining the upper portion of the walls with book shelves on the lower portion. There were suits of armor in the corners, a skylight and a large round table in the center.

"Sir, I have brought them as per your instructions." The guard said with a bow.

"Ah, domo." Josiah thanked him and sent him away. "Minna, this is the assembly room. This is where we discuss most of the ordeals that have been happening in the land." He smiled slightly at watching everyone take a look around the room but was a little confused when he didn't see Echizen.

"Ryoga-dono, may I ask where His Highness is?" Ryoga scratched the back of his head and told him what he told the others about letting him sleep. Josiah had no problem with it seeing as they would probably be discussing things for a while and Echizen could be filled in on the details when the matter came up.

"If you'll all take a seat, we should begin discussing about the things that have been going on and the incident with you Momoshiro-dono." Everyone took a seat at the table.

"This is like the table from King Arthur." Kikumaru said as he took a seat.

"Ah. This was actually an idea when the late King was still here. Somehow it got pushed away and soon forgotten but with your return those three years ago and with Leon-san telling every one of his time on Earth, it came back and we were finally able to make it happen."

"Where are they anyways?" Inui asked. "Leon-san and the other?"

"Leon-san and Captain Takeo went on a recon mission to observe how everything is doing outside of the wall." He looked out of the skylight. "They're actually supposed to be back today and if anything, they should come in here to make reports of everything so there's a good chance that we'll see them. Momoshiro-dono, would care to tell everyone what your experience was while you were possessed by that thing?"

Momo crossed his arms and glared at the table. "I… I don't know. I remember looking for a sign of where we were then going back and fighting those things. After that everything's pretty much a blur. It's like when Echizen transported us from Earth to here. Everything just went black. I was in one place and the next I was in another."

Everyone was quiet. They didn't know what to say. Their friend was somehow possessed by something and was trying to kill a different friend, all with no memory of how it happened.

"Momoshiro-kun, do you remember when everything seemed to go black?" Ryoga asked. "What was the last thing you remember seeing?"

Momo looked up at the question then back down at the table. "I think it started going black when you all showed up." He started rubbing is wrist for no reason which as now incredibly irritated.

They started talking about what potentially could have happened to Momo in that time but stopped when they noticed Momo rubbing his wrist so much. "Are you alright Momoshiro-dono?"

"I don't know. My wrist just started to hurt a bit but now…"

"Did you maybe injure yourself while fighting?"

"No, it just-" he pulled up the sleeve on his jacket to reveal two black bans going around his wrist with X's going between them. "…this thing…"

"Waa, Momo, you never told anyone you got a tattoo." Fuji joked but was staring at them like all the others.

"Ooh, Momo, you could get in trouble at school of any of the teachers see you with that. Or your mother for that fact." Kikumaru said as he leaned closer to see it.

"It's not a tattoo sempais. I don't know what it is." Momo kept rubbing it. "It wasn't there earlier."

"It might be a sign that you've already been possessed for whatever reason and you're no use anymore." Josiah said.

"Eeh?! I'm plenty useful!" Momo yelled.

"Eating everyone's food isn't considered useful. Baka." Kaidou hissed.

Everyone laughed as Momo and Kaidou got in another argument. Ryoga and Josiah looked at each other with smirks on their faces but with the smirks, there was also concern and confusion for what Momo had told them. There has never been anything like this before. Hopefully those things were just marks like Josiah said and nothing more.

* * *

**There it is. Is it before the ninth? Yes it is. I feel accomplished. Good for me. This is so far the longest chapter since I won't have my computer to work on this for two weeks.**

**Welp, what did ya think? Did ya notice the **_**Merlin **_**reference with the round table? One of the many things I'm obsessed with right now.**

**For everyone who doesn't know, kizoku means lord but in the sense I wanted to use it, I wanted it to be 'my lords' but I can't find out how to say it properly so I'm just going to use that until I do. If anyone knows the proper way to say it, please tell me.**

**Forgive all the stupid mistake that I'm too lazy to go back and look for.**

**Tell me how you liked it by pressing that button down there and leaving me feedback!**

**Hope you enjoyed it! Till next time!**


	6. Slight Confusion

**Whoa. Would ya look at that? I did some of this chapter before I went to japan so you guys wouldn't have to wait so long. **_**We wait long anyways.**_** Shhh… just let it happen. I can say that the stress free environment is officially gone. School starts on the 26****th**** and my birthday is on the 4****th**** and there's a lot of online shit I have to deal with and I can say that this story will be my escape.**

**Anyways, how you guys doing? I hope you liked the other chapters so far. I try my best to please you. I don't know where this story is going. It might be as long as the first one, it might not. I have no idea but with school starting soon, I'll have more of a chance to work on this because I procrastinate school with this and whatever. So hopefully, updates will get more frequent and on a regulated schedule. Maybe if you're lucky, this chapter will also be out before the ninth so you can't complain that I took so long for the next.**

**I own may things but Prince of Tennis is not one of them.**

**Well here's chapter six. Enjoy!**

* * *

"It might be a sign that you've already been possessed for whatever reason and you're no use anymore." Josiah said.

"Eeh?! I'm plenty useful!" Momo yelled.

"Eating everyone's food isn't considered useful. Baka." Kaidou hissed.

Everyone laughed as Momo and Kaidou got in another argument. Ryoga and Josiah looked at each other with smirks on their faces but with the smirks, there was also concern and confusion for what Momo had told them. There has never been anything like this before. Hopefully those things were just marks like Josiah said and nothing more.

* * *

Echizen awoke and was a bit confused when he did, forgetting that he and the others had traveled to the angel world. He had figured that Ryoga had put him the right way in bed just like he had other times when they were little. He hoped that he would be able to remember things that happened in the angel world when he was younger now that he was in the actual place that he grew up even if it's not exactly the same as it was.

He sat up in bed and stretched, wincing a little bit from his shoulder but it felt much better than it had before. He looked out the window to see the sky starting to darken. The sun was already half way set which meant he was either asleep for a long time of they got here later than he thought. He got out of bed and went over to the window and opened it. The crisp air filled the room and sent a chill up his spine reminding him that he was still shirtless, not that he minded though, he always did prefer the cold to the heat.

He loved the view of the room. He sat on the windowsill and looked out. He could see the garden he was in earlier. He figured that would be a nice place to sleep at any given point in the day instead of being in his room all day. He wondered what everyone else was doing but could care less. He liked to have time to himself. He was looking out the window lost in thought when he saw two people walking down a path. It was just dark enough so that he couldn't see their faces plus they were wearing cloaks with hoods but he had a feeling he shouldn't say anything. He paid no attention to them and continued gazing out to the garden but noticed that when they got closer, they stopped and looked up at him. Rather annoyed and not liking being stared at, he gave them a glare.

"What?" He had one leg draped outside while the other was half way across with crossed his arms.

One of them laughed. "Nice to see you haven't changed, Heika."

'_Heika?'_ Echizen raised an eyebrow. "Takeo-san?"

He removed his hood to reveal that it really was him. "I'm surprised you remember me Heika. It's been what, three years?"

Echizen scoffed. "For you maybe…" Then it hit him. "If you're Takeo-san, then that means-" He pointed a shaky finger to the other.

He removed his hood. "Aah, Bocchan, it's been such a long time since we've last seen each other." Yep. It was Leon alright. Echizen was taken aback. His face darkened and he sweat dropped several times. "Bocchan, you'll catch cold like that." Echizen remembered that he wasn't wearing a shirt and dead panned. "Let me help you get into your night clothes." Leon flew up to the window and was prepared to fly in but Echizen moved and closed it. "Bocchan…" his voice was slightly muffled as he tried to open the window.

Echizen was quickly looking though his things for find a shirt to wear. Why couldn't he find one when he needed it most? Just as he was about to open his other bag, he heard the window open.

"Bocchan-" Leon's voice was dragging on and made Echizen panic. He looked up to see Leon right in his face with a bright smile. "Bocchan, you really should let me help you."

Echizen dead panned even harder if it was possible. He felt a shirt in his hand, grabbed it from the bag and quickly made his way to the door. If there was one thing he could do without, it was this. He opened the door, threw his shirt on and went running down the hall with Karupin right next to him. He heard footsteps running after him which only made him increase his pace. He came up to a corner and when he rounded it, he was met with an unpleasant thud on the other.

"Oi, watch where yo- Heika!" Of all his luck, he ran into Josiah. "What are you doing? Is there trouble? Why are you running?"

"You could say that there's trouble." Echizen took the hand offered to him and got himself up. "Do something about it will you?" He and Karupin went running past into the next hall.

"Heika-!" It was no use calling for him. He was already out of sight. Josiah scratched his head and rounded the corner Echizen came from only to be run into again. "Okay, aga-"

"Josiah-chan!" Leon said happily. "It's nice to see you."

"Aah, you too Taichou." Josiah said quite awkwardly from being under the older man. "Taichou, if it's not too much to ask…" He gestured from him to move.

"Ah, gomen." Leon helped him up. "Tell me, did the young master run though here?"

Josiah sweat dropped. _'Maybe _this_ was the trouble he was talking about.'_ He thought to himself. Everyone knew what it was like to be chased around by Leon for one reason or another and everyone felt pity for the person being chased. "I haven't seen his majesty recently. Not sense he went to rest in his room a few hours ago." He lied.

Leon's smile was still there but his face went dark and demanding. "Josiah-chan, I hope for your sake you're not lying to me. I distinctly saw the young master run this way and since this is a straight hallway and you are the only here, I might be mistaken but I am assuming you have seen him."

Josiah deadpanned. No one liked being indirectly threatened. "I-Iie. I haven't seen him." Leon's smile got wider as his face got darker. "I-If you're sure you saw him running this way, he might be using that vanishing magic he has…"

Leon's face instantly got brighter and held a confused look. "Bocchan using vanishing magic?"

"A-Ah. He did it when he got here to elude my guards and to ditch the group of others he was with."

Leon smiled and clapped his hands. "Everyone else is here as well? Wonderful. I'll have to see them later." He made his way past Josiah and started running down the hall. "Bocchan, doku ikuno?"

Josiah stood there for a second not completely understanding what just happened. He just hoped that Leon wouldn't find out he was lied to and Echizen would keep his mouth shut about it. Then he thought of Echizen and hoped to God that Leon wouldn't catch him.

* * *

Echizen kept running until his legs were ready to give out. He never ran so fast, not even in practice with the threat of Inui's juice hanging over his head. He stopped in a hall and laid his hand on the wall to try and catch his breath. Karupin sat next to him as if on guard to tell him if someone was coming. After he caught his breath, he straightened himself out and stretched out as much as he could without injuring himself.

'_Why now?'_ He thought. _'I didn't even get to sleep for as long as I wanted. Why did I have to wake up?' _Karupin weaved in and out of his legs and meowed. "Karupin? What's the matter?" Karupin went a little ways up the hall and stopped in front of a door and meowed. "Am I supposed to go in here?" Karupin's ears twitched and Echizen heard the sound of footsteps and a variation of his name being called. "I guess we'll have to."

Echizen opened the door and he and Karupin went inside. He quietly shut it and after a few moments heard who he assumed to be Leon run past it. He let out a relied sigh and rested on the door. "I wonder when it'll be safe to move." He closed his eyes for a second then opened them to examine the room he was currently hiding in. Unlike the other rooms, it was dark either because all the light from the windows were being blocked by something or there weren't windows to begin with. It wasn't very big either. To be honest, it was just a bit bigger than his room.

He took a feather and made it into a little fireball to light the room. There were a few shelves for book and such, a broken chandelier, rusted suits of armor; things he wouldn't really expect in a castle. He went walking to the other side when he heard a hollow noise beneath his feet. He looked down and found a trap door. Feeling curious and not wanting to risk being seen by Leon, he decided to venture down to see what he could find.

He and Karupin went down the stone, spiral stairs and into yet another hall underneath the castle. "This could be useful." There seemed to be several rooms down there which mainly contained armor and weapons. Echizen thought that the way he came in was probably one of many seeing as they seemed to store a lot of things beneath the castle. He kept looking, finding some food storage rooms too which he might or might not have taken a few things to eat.

He ventured down as far as it would go until he reached another set of stairs. Rather than going up though, they went even farther down. It wasn't that much farther down but down nonetheless. When he came to the bottom, there was nothing or at least what looked like nothing. It was just a narrow hall that led to nowhere. Echizen examined the wall that was in front of him and pushed on various places. Soon enough he was able to get it to move. It opened like a rotating door.

He opened in and found he was in another huge room. There were book shelves lining the walls with both books and scrolls, maps everywhere; it was like a huge underground library. He looked around and found candle holders and lit all of them seeing as there were no visible doors or windows.

"These must be the archives Josiah-san was talking about." Echizen sat down at one of the tables and began looking through some of the books that where there. If he was going to be the leader of this land, he might need to know the history of it.

* * *

"So after all this time, we've come to a conclusion: there is a new threat here and whatever it is, it is able to take over your body and pose as you. The time is unknown for how long you might stay like this but we've already defeated one of these things. When you are out on patrol, keep an eye out for each other and watch out for strange behavior. Try not to be alone. Report any strange behavior to your commanding officer. Dismissed."

After Leon had given chase after Echizen, Takeo went to make a report in the assembly room where he met up with all the others and was filled in on what had happened. He then had called all of the guards outside to inform them about what was happening.

"So whatever this thing is, it took control of Momoshiro-dono and tried to kill his majesty… if the enemy is able to take control of us without our knowledge, it will be that much more difficult to fight." Takeo commented as they walked down a hall and into one of the main chambers.

"Yeah, that pretty much sums it up…" Ryoga sighed. "Say, where is Chibisuke anyways?"

Takeo rubbed the back of his neck. "Ahh, I only know that Leon went after him went after him. For all I know, they could still be-" Just then, a dejected Leon came walking towards them.

"Bocchan… doko ikuno…" His face lit up when he saw the others. "Minna-san! It's good to see you!" Everyone exchanged greetings. "Has anyone seen the young master?"

"You mean you haven't found him?" Fuji asked.

"I lost him when he rounded a corner. But I did run into Josiah-chan and he said he didn't see him… I'm starting to wonder if he was just covering up for Bocchan…"

"Well here's your chance to ask him." Momo pointed behind him. Josiah was walking towards them. "Oi Josiah-san, did you see Echizen today?"

Josiah stopped in his tracks at Momo's question and deadpanned when he saw Leon there waiting for an answer. "A-Ah, I-Iie, I haven't seen him since everyone retired to their rooms for a bit…" He stuttered nervously.

"Are you sure?" Fuji asked seeing the nervousness in his eyes.

"H-Hai Fuji-dono. I haven't seen him."

"Eeh? Souka."

"He'll turn up sooner or later." Ryoga crossed his arms. "He probably just found a new place to sleep. Why not go look in the archives for information?"

"Alright. We'll just tell his majesty when we find him." Yukio commented as he began to lead the others. "There are several hidden passages that lead to the archives. If you don't remember the way, you could get lost in the labyrinth under the castle."

"You know the way though right?" Kikumaru asked.

"Ah, I know the most direct and quickest way." He led them into a room and pulled a rope hanging from the ceiling. It opened the wall to which everyone went in. They did a few twists and turns before arriving at a door.

"Was that really the quickest way?" Inui asked.

"Yeah it took us like forever!" Momo complained.

"It was only fifteen minutes baka." Kaidou said.

"But I thought that when something was quick it actually meant_ quick_." Kikumaru voiced.

"Believe me Kizoku, this was indeed the fastest way." Yukio pushed the door open and revealed the same room that Echizen had entered before. Everyone went in inspecting everything as they did. "If you don't know your way and end up getting lost or if you take a different passage, you could be down here for ages, days even."

"You really need to know your way around." Tezuka said as he glanced around. "What about that then?" Everyone turned to see what he gestured at and saw Echizen asleep at a table with books scattered around.

"How did Echizen get down here?" Taka asked.

"He probably found one of the other tunnels." Ryoga said going over to him and picking up one of the books that we're open on the desk. "And by the look of it, he's been here for a while and gotten quite a bit of work done." He handed some of the books out to everyone. Most of them were history books. There were some general education about the land, art and myths. He managed to slip the one out from under him. "He had the right idea though. This is one about dark lore."

Yukio looked at the page over Ryoga's shoulder then took it from his hands. "This tells of black mist leaving a person's body. I think he found what we were looking for."

"How long has he been down here then?" Oishi asked.

"We got back just as the sun was beginning to set and that was- some time ago." Takeo gestured to himself and Leon who was ready to pounce on Echizen but was being kept at bay by Karupin. "Maybe there's an even quicker tunnel you don't know about Yukio and he's been down here ever since Leon lost him."

"Well how long has he been down here then?" Kikumaru asked.

"Two point three hours." Inui said just as he shut his book.

Everyone stared blankly at Echizen. No one thought he could do something besides tennis for so long at one time.

"Well, since we got what we came for, don't you think we should go get some sleep now?" Momo asked with a yawn.

"Aa, that should give us enough time to regain our strength. We can discuss this tomorrow."

Everyone seemed to agree with a tired nod and yawn. Ryoga fought off Leon with Karupin's help and propped Echizen on his back. They all went back through the tunnels and to their rooms. They all said their goodnights and retired to their room and went to bed. Ryoga more or less dropped Echizen at his room with Karupin. Yukio, Takeo and Josiah went about their duties before being able to sleep themselves. The night was calm and quiet but no one seemed to notice a shadow growing and creeping up on the young ruler and if they didn't notice it soon, it was going to be too late and give them a hell of a lot of trouble.

* * *

_Finally. Jesus, take your sweet time why don't you? __**It's not like we wanna know what happens next.**_** Don't judge me guys. I'm sorry it took so long.**_ No you're not._** I really am this time though.**

**There you have it. Chapter six is finally done. When I said I hoped it was done by the ninth, I meant of last month… sorry about that. Things have been hectic. I've been back home for about a week and I've been working on this a little bit at a time. I started college and I gotta say, it's waaaaaaaay easier than high school ever was. My birthday is Wednesday which is awesome and whatnot. I can legally be tried as an adult when that happens :D I'm not sure if that's good or not… anyways, my sleep schedule is all outta whack, I go to bed at six in the morning and wake up at like one or two in the afternoon or I sleep all day. I'm basically nocturnal right now which isn't good for a class that I have to get up for in five hours. I do it for you!**

**Any who, sorry again for the lateness. I try to make them all the same length so I don't jip you on it. Did you like it? I know this chapter was veeeeery dull but don't worry. I promise the next will be awesome. Tell me how you liked it! Leave me a review and stuff!**

**Forgive mistakes and spelling and grammar and propositions and dullness and things that don't make sense and lateness and I'm really sorry. Tell me about them so I can fix.**

**Hope you liked it! See ya later!**


	7. Carnival Games

**Hey guys! How long has it been? I have no clue whatsoever. Remember how I told you last chapter how this one was going to be all awesome with fighting and shit? I didn't lie. It is. I figured I'd try to incorporate one of my personal stories into this one because it fits so much and it'll actually give you guys a reason to want to read it.**

**How's it going yo? This chapter was started on September 4****th**** (happy birthday to me) and if you're lucky, it'll be out quick because I know what I'm writing and it's not shit.**

**It really does help to comment and leave reviews so thanks to everyone who's doing it!**

_**Cupecakeattack**__**: **_**I was actually thinking of doing something like that but with it being something else. I'll take the bruise idea into thought; maybe not use it for Echizen but maybe others. I actually forgot about the wolf. I'm not too sure if he'll make a comeback or not but it's a good idea!**

**Well here's chapter seven. **

**Enjoy!**

* * *

"Well, since we got what we came for, don't you think we should go get some sleep now?" Momo asked with a yawn.

"Aa, that should give us enough time to regain our strength. We can discuss this tomorrow."

Everyone seemed to agree with a tired nod and yawn. Ryoga fought off Leon with Karupin's help and propped Echizen on his back. They all went back through the tunnels and to their rooms. They all said their goodnights and retired to their room and went to bed. Ryoga more or less dropped Echizen at his room with Karupin. Yukio and Takeo went about their duties before being able to sleep themselves. The night was calm and quiet but no one seemed to notice a shadow growing and creeping up on the young ruler and if they didn't notice it soon, it was going to be too late and give them a hell of a lot of trouble.

* * *

That day felt a bit different than usual but maybe it was because it was the first official day of being in the angel world this time and the fact that he knew he didn't fall asleep in a bed but more at an uncomfortable table. Echizen slowly opened his eyes and narrowed them to a squint as one single ray of light peeked in from the enormous window. He turned over so it wouldn't be in his face anymore but his eyes widened when he saw Leon in bed next to him. He let out a sort of slight yelp, jumped back and fell out of the bed bringing a sheet with him.

"Bocchan." Leon with a yawn crawled over to the fallen prince. "Are you alright? Come back to bed."

"Like hell I'll come back to bed. What the hell are you doing in here with me anyways?" He demanded as he rubbed the back of his head. He didn't like waking up to any face but Karupin's.

"You should've seen him last night." Echizen looked under the bed to see no other than Ryoga.

He jumped. "And what the hell are you doing under there?"

"He followed me when I came in here to put you in bed and refused to leave. He started crying like a baby."

"I did not!" Leon protested as he leaned over the bed and looked under it. "And where does it say you can sleep with him where I can't?"

"I'm his brother. It's a natural right." Ryoga shot back as he slid out from under it. "You should've seen him. I set you down and he started stripping and tried to crawl in with you."

"Well you can't expect me to sleep in my armor can you? Besides…" he sounded dejected. "Nothing happened."

"I got him to leave his under clothes on but still didn't let him in the bed."

"Why did I wake up with him right next to me then?" Echizen crossed his arms.

"Chibisuke…" Ryoga really didn't want to say.

"He couldn't resist my charm." Leon winked at him.

"Charm? More like your persistent whining. Honestly Chibisuke, I don't know how you can sleep through almost anything."

"I do not whine!" Leon whined.

This argument was something Echizen didn't want to get in to nor did he like it first thing as he got up. He has a headache and yelling wasn't helping. He really didn't need this.

"Get out of my room." His voice was just above a whisper.

"Did you say something?" the two asked in unison.

"Get out!" He yelled. "Out!" he got up and pushed Leon and Ryoga towards the door. "If you two are going to act like children, do it where I can't see you! Out!" he pushed them out the door and slammed it behind them.

"Bocchan…"

"Chibisuke… this is your fault." Ryoga pointed.

"_My fault?" _Leon was offended. "If you had just let me sleep with him-"

"_Don't_ finish that sentence, please. I've had enough of you for today already and the day hasn't even started." Ryoga walked away and Leon followed in toe complaining about his majesty and how people never tire of him.

Echizen listened to the voices outside the door as they got quieter and soon stopped. He sighed. He would need new bed sheets or an entirely new bed after knowing Leon had slept in it. Why did he feel so angry just now? He knew that they were joking like they always do and he had no reason to be angry. We sat on his bed and held his head in his hands. Karupin appeared and meowed. Echizen gave him a small smile and a pet. He knew he was here on business but all he wanted to do was relax. He felt more at peace here than he did on earth.

He changed into whatever he pulled out of his bag then left the room and made his way down the corridor with Karupin following after. He didn't know what time it was exactly but he guessed it was just around the late morning since the smell of breakfast still lingered in the air. He stopped at one of the windows and noticed that there were decorations for something outside. Not paying much attention, he more or less followed his noise to the smell of food.

He passed several servants which all bowed and bid him good morning. Most of them were carrying more decorations for something or other and got him a little curious about what was going on outside. He went into the dining hall where he was greeted by everyone.

"Oi Echizen, how long did you plan on sleeping?" Momo teased as he shoved food in his mouth.

Echizen scoffed. '_Let's see you transport everyone to another world and almost get killed by your best friend and see how energetic you are'._ He thought to himself as a servant brought him a seemingly familiar breakfast. He stared at it confused for a second.

"I told them to make this while we're here." Ryoga said.

"We don't know what they use to cook and we could end up being allergic or get really sick from it." Oishi butted in being the mother hen he is.

Echizen shrugged. He happily downed the familiar food seeing as it had been nearly a whole day he had gone without eating. Even though he started later than everyone, he finished first. While waiting for everyone else to finish he scanned his environment. There was a slight feeling of dejavu with the table being filled with everyone happily conversing with each other, Karupin eating at his assigned dish along a wall and servants walking around putting up decorations for… something.

"Oi, what's everyone doing?" he asked Yukio who happened to be the closest one near him that would actually know what's going on. "It seems so- familiar."

Yukio looked around to see servants rushing everywhere. He didn't seem to notice because it was all pretty much normal for him. "Ah, everyone is getting ready for the celebration." Echizen raised an eyebrow. "For your return. You'll be staying for a while right? Why not be happy about it?"

He shrugged. He was back home and he should be happy about it so why not celebrate it? He needed to relax after his "_exciting_" first day. Maybe this was his chance to get more sleep. He felt Karupin rub up against his leg. He backed his chair out and pulled him up to his lap. "What kinds of things happen?"

"Well there are sword battles, archery, food and strength contests and everyone's personal favorite is the boat race." Yukio answered with a happy expression.

"Are we going to play some games?" Kikumaru asked from halfway across the table.

'_How did he even hear that?'_ The two of them thought.

"This has something to do with all the decorations people are putting up right?" Taka asked.

"It does." Josiah answered from the other side of the table. "Celebrating the return of the heir to the throne and all the knights to accompany him. This is a very proud moment for the kingdom; even if it's just temporary."

"Yossha!" Momo flung his hand into the air. "Oi Mamoshi, I bet I can beat you at every single event!"

"You're on." Kaidou said calmly.

"When does it start?" Fuji asked.

"Usually when everything is set up is when people actually start the events and everything." Leon answered. "It should be ready about now I think seeing as everyone was excited for this since there hasn't been one for so long."

"Sou…" Echizen got up from his chair and started making his way out of the room. "Come get me when we know it's ready. I still want to sleep." He started down the hall towards the way of his room.

"Oh no you don't." Momo and Kikumaru jumped from their chairs and ran after Echizen, holding his arms in theirs and making him drop Karupin. "This is what you do at the festivals we have at school. You always end up running off and sleeping somewhere." Their faces had dark grins on them. "We'll make sure you have lots of fun today."

"C-Chotto!" Momo and Kikumaru dragged Echizen in the opposite direction towards the court yard with Karupin running after them. "Matte-!" Echizen voice trailed off as he got farther away.

Everyone that was still in the room sweat dropped. "Maybe we should join them before they get into too much trouble." Fuji said with a smile. "What if they go to the sword battle and end up getting injured?"

Oishi's face darkened. He got up from his sitting position and slowly walked towards the door then yelled. "I won't let that happen! Eiji! Momo! Echizen! Be careful!" His voice also trailed away as he ran down the hall.

"Fuji, that was unnecessary." Tezuka said as everyone calmly exited the room. Fuji merely smiled in response.

* * *

The castle grounds were beautiful; flags hanging everywhere and swaying in the gentle breeze, the smell of food filling the air, people laughing and cheering, and the clang of swords- it was like festival week at school but better.

"Waa, everything is so pretty." Taka said.

"This goes beyond my theories." Inui adjusted his glasses. "Being able to do all this in not even a full day. It's impossible."

"Don't forget that time moves faster here than it does in your world Inui-dono. It's been about a full day here but only a few hours where you're from." Takeo said as he clapped Inui on the shoulder.

"Get back here!" Everyone turned to see Momo and Kikumaru in pursuit of Echizen and Karupin and Oishi trailing behind them.

"Yadda! Leave me alone!" Echizen was running his hardest, not wanting to be caught by the two.

"Momo leave Echizen alone!" Oishi called to them not running nearly as fast as they were.

"Listen to your sempai Echizen! Stop!" Momo's pace quickened.

"I'll listen when you start acting like one! And you listen to your sempai!" Referring to Oishi.

"Alright! Eiji-sempai, what should we do?" Momo smirked.

Kikumaru returned the smirk. "Keep going and don't give up until you catch him!"

Echizen way thoroughly annoyed. He looked down at Karupin which made him slow down the jumped and started to fly.

"We can do that too Echizen!" Just before Momo and Kikumaru were about to follow, Karupin grew to his enormous size and growled. "O-Oi Echizen…" They took a step back and he took a step forward. "T-t-that's cheating!" They took off running in the other direction and Karupin went right after them.

"That's one way to do it." Ryoga said with a laugh. There were a series of 'ooh's and aah's' as Echizen flew over everyone. "He's such a show off."

"He'll be around. In the meantime, enjoy yourselves." Josiah gestured to anything and everything. "We'll find you once the boat race is about to start. Just because it's a day of celebration doesn't mean that we can slack off."

"But I wanted to play with Bocchan…" Leon complained.

Takeo pulled his ear nudging him to follow. "We'll be around." The four of them went off meaning to start their patrol.

"Well, feel free to do whatever. Don't be late for the boats!" Ryoga ran off. He still remembered these when he was a kid and how much fun he had at them. The rest of the regulars ventured in and slowly dispersed and went to things they wanted to try.

* * *

Echizen was in the top of a tree overlooking everything that was being done below. He smirked when he saw Karupin chasing his sempais around. He felt really aggravated at the moment for no real reason. He saw people staring and pointing at him, no doubt because he still had his wings out and it was proving the royal bloodline had come back to the throne. He paid them no mind and went on overlooking everything.

He saw Takeo, Yukio, Leon and Josiah walking around the outer most with their division of guards making sure everything was alright. It was quite easy to see everyone he came with, seeing as they had on different and more modern clothes. Fuji was sitting at a table with most of the big, bulky guards.

"Are you sure you can handle this, Fuji-dono?" One of the guards asked as he put on arm on the table.

"Not at all." Fuji said as he also put his arm on the table and locked it with the others'.

"Ready…" Echizen couldn't believe what he was seeing. Fuji was arm wrestling with the leading guards, probably in the whole castle. "Go!" Cheers erupted from the group for either Fuji or the other. They got louder when Fuji's arm almost touched the table.

"Maybe you should try again in a few years Fuji-dono." The guard taunted.

"We'll see about that." Fuji taunted back. The guard looked up at him and the smile he was expecting was replaced with a frown and glaring open eyes. The guard let out a sheepish squeak which led to Fuji smiling again and the guards hand on the table. There was silence for a second then cheering and laughing. "Too bad."

The guard kept going back and forth between looking at his hand and Fuji's face. "Fuji-dono that's cheating! I-" Before he could say more, he was pushed out of the way and replaced with another demanding a match. Fuji happily accepted, making the same thing happen yet again.

Echizen let out a chuckle, seeing Fuji beat people in arm wrestling was something he never imagined and one right after another. He eyes moved from him to Taka by the sword circle and got a feeling of nostalgia from the last time.

"I'm ready for you this time Kawamura-dono." Apparently it was the same knight that faced him last time.

"A-Ah. Please go easy on me." Taka said as he stepped into the ring.

"Kawamura-sempai, you forgot your sword." Kaidou said handing him the hilt.

"Arigatou Kaidou." Taka grabbed the sword.

"Get ready." Some guards on the outside had horrified looks on their faces. "This is going to be good." The newer ones leaned in in excitement. "I'd stand back if I were you." The older ones were telling them. The younger, more inexperienced guards were confused but jumped back when they heard shouting.

"DORIA! MOERUZE BURNING!" It had been awhile since Echizen had seen Taka in burning mode. Most of the knights on the outside took a few steps back. "KORA KORA KORA KORA! NO PROBLEM. I WILL CRUSH YOU."

"Kawamura-sempai, please don't destroy the ring like last time." Kaidou said leaning over the side slightly.

The knight in the ring with him took a few steps back. "M-Maybe I was wrong…" He was visibly shaking, again unprepared for the sudden rush Taka made at him. He ran around the ring until he finally gave up and hopped out of it. Echizen could see that it was going to be like last time. He plucked a feather and threw it at Taka's hands before he could make it to the side of the ring, making him let go of the sword.

He looked up at everyone who had terrified expressions. "Ara? Is it over? Did I win?"

The knights all laughed. No one could ever understand how he was able to do that. Kaidou sighed. He looked that the feather on the ground that was beginning to disappear then up to the tree Echizen was in and gave him a nod of thanks.

Echizen nodded back then moved to look somewhere else. He could see Inui and Tezuka more or less having a battle of wits with some of the court philosophers and Momo and Kikumaru were finally caught by Karupin and had a group of people trying to free them but most of them were just laughing. He caught sight of Ryoga by the archery range and got interested. He flew down to where he was getting another series of 'ooh's and aah's'.

"Chibisuke, having fun?" Ryoga asked as he let an arrow go.

"Has this happened before? A festival like this?" He asked taking a bow himself.

"Well yeah, loads of times." Ryoga loaded another arrow. "Why do you ask?"

"It seems so familiar. Was there one before _that_ day?"

Ryoga lowered his bow. "Do you remember? There was one just about a week before, celebrating your birthday I think."

Echizen didn't remember precisely but he knew he had done this before. Still with his mind in thought, he loaded this bow with an arrow and let it go, hitting the target right in the center.

"Che, I knew you were good but not this good." Ryoga said ruffling his hair. "This you can beat the champion?"

Echizen raised an eyebrow. "If you say I have to beat you, I'm leaving."

Ryoga laughed. "I wish." He whistled and a man looking the same age as Yukio appeared. "This is Jaeger-san, the master archer."

He bowed. "It's a pleasure Heika. Aki Jaeger. I train all of the guards to master the bow." He looked at the target Echizen shot at. "You seem to have no trouble though; hitting the center first shot." Echizen shrugged and Jaeger laughed. "Let's see how you do it from farther away." He moved the target back a good ten yards and hard Echizen fire. Again, he hit it in the center. He moved it back even farther and still Echizen had a perfect shot.

"Chibisuke, you're not cheating are you?" Ryoga teased as Echizen hit the target at a good hundred feet away.

"I'm sure he's not. Some people just have raw talent." Jaeger said as he came walking to them after placing the target at around a fair two hundred feet away. "This is the farthest we make the knights shoot from but none of them are able to hit the target directly if at all." He took up his own bow and fired it, hitting the target in the center. "How about it Heika?"

Echizen looked at the target and instead of staying with the bows provided, he took a feather and made his own.

"Why are you using that one?" Ryoga asked.

"The ones that are here are too weak to handle a shot like that. Hence why Jaeger-san used his own." He pointed out. He got an arrow, loaded his bow and fired. When his arrow hit the target, his bow vanished. "I think you need practice, Jaeger-san." He then whistled for Karupin.

Aki went to get the target and Karupin came running and jumped into Echizen's arms followed by Momo and Kikumaru.

"Oi Echizen!" Momo didn't even have to speak. Echizen was pleased with what happened and he could see that. "Why you-!" He quickly pulled Echizen into a head lock and stretched him every which way.

"R-Ryoga, do something!" Echizen pleaded but Ryoga just stood there with Kikumaru and Karupin laughing.

"Is this the part where I'm supposed to save you?" Jaeger asked as he set down the target. Echizen nodded and pleaded with his eyes "Heika, if you can hit the target from two hundred feet and manage to split _my_ arrow in the process, you should be able to get yourself out of this."

"Waa, Ochibi did this?" Kikumaru prodded at the arrow. "Ochibi you're so cool!" Now in addition to Momo's strangling, he now had Kikumaru latching onto him.

He was getting frustrated, which confused him. He shouldn't get so mad over something that happens so often. He was about to use his magic and teleport himself somewhere but right before he did, there was a sound of someone blowing in a horn which Echizen was very grateful for since it caused his sempais to loosen their grips.

"Nani kore?" Momo asked.

"That was the signal of the start of the boat race." Jaeger said with a smile. "We're going to the lake."

* * *

**And it ended there. I feel awkward but this is waaaaay longer than I intended it to be so you can bear with weird endings for now.**

**Waaaaa, started on my birthday and ended on the 20****th****. **_**Lazy ass.**_** Don't judge me.**_ I'm judging you. _** I'm in college now so I don't have a lot of time to write… well, except Tuesdays and Thursdays. Three hours in between classes with nothing to do is a great time to sit down and write stories.**

**Well, did ya like it? Before you ask, yes I did steal Jaeger from SNK. I did actually want to use that name for a while and this is perfect for it. I know, I said it was going to be full of action and shit and I lied. I'm sorry but I put a lot more things here than intended. Next chapter will **_**definitely**_** have action and shit in it.**

**Tell me what you thought about it! Correct me on mistakes I missed. Dear god, just leave me a review.**

**Forgive stupid mistakes, grammar, spelling, stupidness and corniness of the story overall. **

**See ya next time!**


	8. That Wasn't Supposed to Happen

**Hey-o! I'm so goddamn excited for Halloween. You really have no idea. And today has been over cast all day and oh my god I'm so excited. Its next month but oh well.**

**Soooo, how's everyone been? I hope you've been good. Like I said, I promise there will be proper action and fighting and shit and whatnot. So that should make up for not having any in the past chapters. **_**You think so but no, not really.**_** Quiet you. **

**I'm not promising this will be up any time soon because that usually doesn't work. It'll be up when it's done. Ummm, for the boats in this chapter… I don't know. Think of like kayaks, canoes or gondolas or something but it's long and narrow but has enough space for like eight people. **

**Umm, so… yeah. Here's chapter eight.**

**Have fun!**

* * *

"Is this the part where I'm supposed to save you?" Jaeger asked as he set down the target. Echizen nodded and pleaded with his eyes "Heika, if you can hit the target from two hundred feet and manage to split _my_ arrow in the process, you should be able to get yourself out of this."

"Waa, Ochibi did this?" Kikumaru prodded at the arrow. "Ochibi you're so cool!" Now in addition to Momo's strangling, he now had Kikumaru latching onto him.

He was getting frustrated, which confused him. He shouldn't get so mad over something that happens so often. He was about to use his magic and teleport himself somewhere but right before he did, there was a sound of someone blowing in a horn which Echizen was very grateful for since it caused his sempais to loosen their grips.

"Nani kore?" Momo asked.

"That was the signal of the start of the boat race." Jaeger said with a smile. "We're going to the lake."

* * *

Echizen escaped his captors, rubbed his shoulder and scooped up Karupin. "What are we going exactly?"

"You're familiar with the lake right?" Jaeger awkwardly asked. It took them a few seconds but then it clicked. They _very much_ remembered the lake and what happened there. They all deadpanned. "It's going to start there and then work downstream to the finish."

"Isn't it like way out of the boundary of the castle though?" Ryoga asked. "Won't it be dangerous?"

"You would think but we've long since cleared everything out. Plus it's not as far out as you think. The camp you were at was farther from it than the castle is."

"What do we do when we get there?" Kikumaru asked as they all started towards the lake.

"You're in a boat with three other people and you're racing down the river to the ending doing whatever you can to get there first."

"So you're saying that this is just one big game of bumper boats?" Echizen asked with a raised eyebrow.

Jaeger chuckled. "I guess you could say that. It's really entertaining to watch grown men fight in boats and get knocked in the water. The only real rule to win is to try and not injure anyone and you need at least two relatively dry people in your boat and no flying to stay dry if you're about to fall in the water. There will be guards every mile or so we'll know."

"Will you be partaking in it?" Ryoga asked.

"I will not but I look forward to seeing his majesty at the finish, coming if first no doubt." He replied with a smile. Echizen would've made a remark but was trying to tune out his sempais.

"Waa, Ochibi, we're going to be in a team together. You too Momo and Ryoga-san." Kikumaru was hopping up and down. "And Karupin can be the mascot!" He picked up Karupin and held him over his head.

"Yosh! There's no way we can lose if I'm on the team!" Momo flexed and placed his hand on his bicep.

Echizen sighed and Ryoga and Jaeger smirked. They had gotten to the lake to see several boats lined up to half way across with the dock keeping them from going down steam. They saw the others waiting and getting into group. From the looks of it, Fuji, Kaidou, Taka and Oishi were a group and Leon, Takeo, Josiah and Yukio were another and several other guards and people made up the rest of the groups. Tezuka and Inui were standing idly not caring if they participated or not. Someone announce that it was time to get in the boats. Momo and Kikumaru ran to the boat they wanted and ended up almost knocking Kaidou into the water in the process.

"Oi! Watch where you're going!" He yelled at Momo.

"Eh? Why don't you watch out? You were in the way." Momo replied nonchalantly.

"Nani? It would've been your fault if I fell in."

"What's the matter Mamoshi? Scared of a little water?"

That got Kaidou mad. "You're going down you stupid peach!"

"You're on you idiot snake!" And another fight broke out between them. Tezuka sighed and rubbed his forehead. Those two would be the death of him. He was about to reprimand them but Echizen beat him to it and not in the way he would've done it.

"Can you two please take your unrequited love affair somewhere where we don't have to look at it?" He kept his head down as he said it and ignored the faces they gave him and got into the boat with Kikumaru and Ryoga behind him. The people that were around to hear it giggled.

"Chibisuke, I think you broke them." Ryoga said with a bit of a chuckle as he pointed to the two of them staring at him with their mouths open and faces flushed.

"Echizen that's disgusting!" They said in sync.

Echizen shrugged. "Not my fault you guys look like a couple, always together and holding hands and everything. And your faces never seem that far apart most of the time."

The two on the dock looked. They usually were always together, their hands were intertwined since they were blocking hits from each other and they were always shouting in each other's faces. They blushed even harder then quickly let go of each other and calmly got into their boats. Kaidou mumbling about something or other and Momo punched Echizen on the head and yelled at him for saying such things.

"Heika, don't be sad if you don't get first!" Takeo shouted from his boat seeing as every year since they had been the champions.

"Che. We'll see how gets what." Echizen said under his breath.

"Ready-" Everyone had two people on the ores to row and the other two to watch out for other boats and do what seemed necessary to get in front.

"GO!" People on the dock cut the ropes that holding them and everyone started drifting. Echizen smirked as he chanted a small thing to give their boat a boost and not only that but the ropes on all the other boats had reattached to the dock. Everyone was trying to get the ropes cut again but Echizen had also turned their swords and weapons to feathers.

"Oi Echizen!" Kaidou saw his smirk widen as they drifted away.

"Haha! Later Mamoshi!" Momo's voice trailed off at they reached the more rapid part of the river and had good speed going down stream with Ryoga and Kikumaru rowing. When they were fully out of sight, the feathers turned back into weapons.

"Get these ropes cut!" Josiah yelled to his team.

"Ah… Bocchan is so cleaver to think of something like this." Leon dreamily said.

"That's not helping Leon!" Takeo said.

"That bastard peach…" Kaidou was fuming. Momo would never let him hear the end of this though Momo doesn't let anyone hear the end of anything. The ropes still wouldn't cut. Kaidou pulled a feather from his wings, formed it into a sword, went to the dock and broke the wooden dowel that was holding them there. The boat began to drift. Kaidou gave it a push them jumped into it and they took off after Echizen.

Everyone was a little stunned to see that happen but the followed his example and soon everyone was on the river.

* * *

"Haha Ochibi, that was great!" Kikumaru said happily looking behind them and seeing no one following them. "We'll be in first for sure!"

Echizen laid on the front most part where it was flat and had Karupin on top of him. "If no one figures out to break the ropes then yeah but I doubt it." He knew that the ropes were probably broken already but he didn't really care. If he did, he wouldn't have let the speed boost were off so quickly. He needed this. Some relaxing time with his friends to forget about who he was and what he had to do and all the things that have already happened. His shoulder didn't hurt nearly as much as it did and when he changed the bandages, the lines where no longer there which he was a little concerned about. He wanted to be a kid again and have the life there he never got to.

They waded on the river for a little while talking about random things and such then started to hear shouts from behind them. Momo, Kikumaru and Ryoga looked behind them while Echizen barely opened an eye. Kaidou's boat was catching up to them and Leon's not far behind them.

"Eh?! Echizen I thought you stopped them!" Momo said as he took Kikumaru's place and began to row.

"I never said for how long. If would've been sad if they couldn't figure a way to break that spell and where would the fun be if we floated down stream with no competition?" He sat up with Karupin in his lap.

"But you were supposed to ensure our victory!" Ryoga whined.

"I never said anything about winning or actually participating in this. _You_ decided it."

"Minna… I think we need to row faster." Kikumaru said as he pointed behind them. They all looked back to see both Kaidou and Oishi switching with Taka. They all gulped as they saw him take the ores in his hands.

"MOERUZE BURNING!" Kaidou's boat took on an immense amount of speed and rapidly began to catch up.

"R-Ryoga-san, row faster!" Momo said.

"I'm trying!" Their rowing wasn't in sync anymore and they ended up going a little crooked. "Straighten out!"

Before they had a chance to do anything, Kaidou's boat crashed into theirs.

"Saa, this really is like bumper boats." Fuji said as he held on to the side of his so not to get tossed out but the same wasn't for the others. The impact was so great, seeing that it was Taka that was rowing and they were going into a rapid part of the river, it made Echizen lose his grip on Karupin and sent him flying into the water.

"Karupin!" No hesitation, Echizen dived in after him.

"Echizen!" Shouts from each boat went after him but were fading away as Echizen went deeper and the boats went into the rapids. He grabbed Karupin and fought the current and refused to be taken down stream in the rapids. He flew though the water and jolted out of it and onto the side.

"Karupin!" He set Karupin down to make sure he was alright. He hacked up some water but otherwise was alright. Echizen sighed in relief. They were soaked but alright. He shook his hair while Karupin shook his fur to get most of the water off. He didn't see any reason to go back to the boat. He was going to sleep if he did. He sent a feather to find Ryoga to tell him he was alright but he wasn't going to go back.

"Heika! Are you alright?!" He looked on the river to see Leon's boat float past with everyone in it with worried looks.

"I'm fine." He shouted back.

"So much for you winning Heika!" Yukio shouted playfully as soon as they knew he was fine.

"Just because I'm not in the boat doesn't mean I can't win." He huffed. There was a gleam in his eyes. He smirked at the boat going by which sent chills up their spines. A little fountain of water sprayed up from the boat.

"Heika!" Takeo shouted as they tried to stop the hole. Just as they did, they looked back at Echizen who was still smirking. They started to go lower but there was no water in the boat. In fact, they were almost down to the bottom of the river.

"Heika, stop this!" They were almost to the rapids which they sure weren't going to be able to pass with only a few feet of water.

Echizen picked up Karupin and started walking into the forest. "As you wish." He snapped his fingers and kept walking until he was out of sight.

"Heh, he deserves to have fell in." Yukio said.

"Oh he was just having fun." Leon said.

"I don't think _that_ is having fun." Josiah pointed behind them to where a massive wave was, ready to swallow the boat.

"HEIKAAAA!" Echizen chucked as he heard the cry of his friends as the wave hit them. He was happy to be able to play around for a bit. He didn't want to go back to the start and wait so he decided he would get familiar with the woods again.

There was dejavu as he walked through. He remembered when Josiah first tackled him and they found the camp and smirked. He wanted simpler times where you didn't need to be scared to go outside. He walked in the woods for a while and by that time, the sun was starting to set. Not a lot but he could tell it was about time to start walking back. He began going back to the river when he got a massive pain in his shoulder.

"Not again…" He looked at it and saw yet another kunai embedded in it. "These things are ruining my shirts." He pulled it out with a grunt. "Whoever's there, why don't you come out and fight me instead of hiding?" He yelled, more than a little angry. Karupin started growling and transformed. A figure jumped down from the trees.

"_So it's finally happened. The long lost heir to the throne has returned."_ Echizen heir a voice in his head. The figure in front of him had a black cloak on covering his, from what Echizen could see, relatively small body frame and face. _"It's a pleasure, Heika."_

Echizen huffed with annoyance. "I really don't need another one of you. I'm in no mood to deal with you." He drew his sword. "Let's get this over with."

"_Do you really think you should fight with your shoulder like that?"_ Echizen raised an eyebrow. _"Plus I do not wish to fight… although there is one thing I must do."_

Echizen blinked and he was gone and there was a sharp pain in his arm. He looked to see a long, deep gash. He dropped his sword so he could put pressure on it and blinked again and the figure was in front of him once more.

"_That is all I was instructed to do. We will meet again at some point in the future."_ He started walking away.

"Wait! Who instructed you to do this?" Echizen called to him. The figure stopped in just the right light and Echizen was able to see his eyes. They looked so sad, like they've seen too much blood shed in their life. He didn't answer Echizen and kept walking into the darker part of the forest then disappeared.

Echizen sighed. His good mood was ruined along with another one of his shirts. _'Maybe I should just go around shirtless.'_ He thought but then quickly dismissed it from recalling the incident with Leon the night before. He pulled his shirt off so he could get a better look at the new injury. It was really deep and leaking like a faucet but the one on his shoulder didn't look nearly as bad compared.

"Oishi-sempai is going to have a fit." He puffed and started to tear his shirt into strips. "If this keeps up, I'll be out of shirts by the end of the week." He wrapped his arm with the make shift bandage then started down the river to see if he could find the others.

* * *

"They sure have been a while."

"Maybe something happened."

"I bet it was his majesty pulling another prank."

The people at the finish were all waiting to see who would come in first but this was the first year that it had taken nearly to sundown.

"Do you think something happened?" Inui asked Tezuka.

"Knowing that lot, something definitely happened." Tezuka answered.

"Here they come!" Yelled one of the guards in a lookout tower.

Everyone looked down the river to see the three boats neck and neck but not so much racing to the finish as trying not to get run over by the wave that was behind them. All the spectators moved away from the river's edge for fear of the wave. Inui and Tezuka merely flew up to about the tree height and watched as the three boats tumbled over getting lost in the white water just as they crossed the finish line.

They waited until the water died down then floated back to the ground. The boats were in a mess and the eleven people in them were popping out of the water gasping for breath. They looked at one another then burst out laughing as they went to the side.

"First time that ever happened." Takeo said wringing out his clothes.

"What happened anyways?" Fuji asked shaking his hair.

"Ah, Heika wanted to have some fun after the taunt from the side of the river." Josiah said.

"Where is Echizen anyways?" Kaidou asked.

"What if when he jumped in the river to get Karupin, he smashed his head on a rock and now he's floating downstream, unconscious and possibly drowning?" Oishi bit his nails.

"Oh Bocchan…" Leon nearly fainted. "I will give him mouth to mouth if necessary!"

"Oishi-sempai, you're too dramatic." Momo said stripping his shirt. "And Leon-san, that's disturbing."

"Chibisuke is fine. He sent a feather saying he was going to explore a bit before he headed back." Ryoga looked at the sky. "He should be heading back now since it's getting dark."

"Speak of the devil." Inui pointed behind everyone to where Echizen was. They were all happy to see him but with his shirt off, that was something they didn't expect.

"Echizen, why are yo-"

"Bocchan~!" Leon burst through everyone and went running towards Echizen. He did nothing but kept walking. As Leon got closer, he flicked his fingers and trapped Leon in a bubble ensuring he wouldn't be able to get out for the moment.

"Chibisuke, are you alright?" Ryoga said checking his brother over and frowning when he saw the blood soaked cloth on his arm. "What happened?"

"Can we talk inside? I'm cold and wet and I want a new shirt and one that won't get blood on it." He crossed his arms.

"Ah. That's fine." Yukio instructed one of the guards to initiate the end of the day. They would do clean up and such the next day.

"But who won?" People were shouting for an answer and before anyone could tell them, Echizen spoke.

"Why does there need to be a victor? Where's the fun if you do something just to win? All that matters is that you had a fun time doing it."

Everyone's faces flushed. They knew their ruler was great but to say such meaningful things at such a young age? They all cheered as the group made their way back to the castle and unfortunately for Echizen, he had gotten so tired that he forgot he had a bubble around Leon and it dissipated.

"Bocchan-!" He launched himself at Echizen. "You're injured! I need to fully examine you!"

Echizen sighed. He really didn't need this. He turned to Ryoga. "You know where I'll be." And like that, he was gone before Leon could jump on him.

"Oooh! He always does that!" Leon pouted. Everyone laughed as they continued to make their way to the castle.

* * *

When they got there, Echizen was in his room in a dry change of pants. He told everyone what had happened after he jumped in after Karupin and went into the forest. The figure he saw didn't seem that threatening, at least compared to the others they have faced before. He seemed more sad and unwilling to do what he was instructed. They decided to let Echizen sleep on it and they would talk tomorrow. They all left his room but Oishi was back rather quickly and in a dry set of clothes so he could properly dress the wound.

"Echizen, I with you'd be more careful." Oishi cleaned the area around the wound. "One of these days you could end up really hurting yourself."

"Oishi-sempai, you worry too much. I always get out of it somehow." Oishi gave a tight tug on the gauze he was wrapping which made Echizen wince.

"And what if you don't? What if you can't? Echizen, what if you… what if…"

"What if what sempai?"

"What if… you end up dying again? But this time there would be no way to come back?" Oishi went over to the window and looked out and Echizen stared at the door so their backs were facing each other.

"Oishi-sempai… that won't happen. Not for a long time."

"How sure are you of that? It could happen any moment."

Echizen twitched. This wasn't like his sempai. "Oishi-sempai, if that has to happen to keep everyone else safe, then so be it." He felt a blade at his neck.

"_**You're so sweet to want to sacrifice yourself for the sake of others."**_ Oishi's voice was mangled with another. Echizen turned to see a dark aura radiating from him. _**"Too bad it won't do any good. They'll all die anyways." **_Echizen was going to make a move to get the blade away from him but Oishi saw through that. _**"Nuh uh uh. You make a move and I slit this one's throat." **_The not Oishi held up a blade to his own neck.

Echizen stopped. They knew his weakness was his friends. He was powerless. All he could do was stand there, looking at his possessed sempai hoping there was a way to fix all of this. _"Oishi-sempai… I'll get you out of this…"_

* * *

**This is another weird place to end. I really don't like it like this but if I keep going I'll never stop and this is already up to like four thousand words. I figure it makes up for bad updates and on time updates and short chapters and this and shit.**

**Oooooh, did ya see that coming? Betcha didn't. Naw you probably did.**

**Did ya like it? You should tell me with a review or whatever.**

**Forgive corniness, stupid mistakes, spelling, grammar, not clear things, stupidness all around and whatnot. It's two in the morning and I sacrificed sleep for this but I don't have class tomorrow but still.**

**Hope ya liked it!**

**See ya later!**


	9. Things Aren't As They Seem

**Eeeeeey. I got two hours of sleep last night and finished the previous chapter. Went to bed at like four and got up as six to go to class and now it's 13:00 and I still have another two hours to wait until my next class starts and I don't feel like walking home then having to walk back so I'm sitting here without internet typing this for you. I hope you're happy.**_** Knowing that you're suffering is wonderful**_**. I hate you.**

**Okay uh, I don't really have that much to tell you…**

**I haven't said that I don't own Prince of Tennis in a while so… yeah. I don't own it. **

**Welp here's chapter nine.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

"How sure are you of that? It could happen any moment."

Echizen twitched. This wasn't like his sempai. "Oishi-sempai, if that has to happen to keep everyone else safe, then so be it." He felt a blade at his neck.

"_**You're so sweet to want to sacrifice yourself for the sake of others."**_ Oishi's voice was mangled with another. Echizen turned to see a dark aura radiating from him. _**"Too bad it won't do any good. They'll all die anyways." **_Echizen was going to make a move to get the blade away from him but Oishi saw through that. _**"Nuh uh uh. You make a move and I slit this one's throat." **_The not Oishi held up a blade to his own neck.

Echizen stopped. They knew his weakness was his friends. He was powerless. All he could do was stand there, looking at his possessed sempai hoping there was a way to fix all of this. _"Oishi-sempai… I'll get you out of this…"_

* * *

Echizen kept waiting for whatever possessed his sempai to make a move but it just stood there with a knife at both of their throats. He didn't know what to do. If he couldn't find a way out of this, he would be dead and if he tried to do something, he would slit Oishi's throat. He was stuck.

"_**Aww, don't look so down."**_ The imposter said. _**"After I kill you, I'll kill everyone else then this one so you won't be lonely in the afterlife."**_

"How will killing them benefit you? You can hurt me but leave my friends out of it." Echizen tensed as the blade was pressed harder against his neck.

"_**Oh, your 'friends' have no interest to me but it would be wonderful to watch you suffer. And isn't it? I'm hurting you by just being in your friend's body."**_ He slid the blade across so it drew a bit of blood. _**"Isn't it wonderful? I don't even have to touch you."**_

"Stop it!" He wanted to jump at him but with the angle he was at, it would just end up hurting both of them. He just sat there feeling useless but not only that, his vision started to blur a bit. He saw Karupin looking from under the bed and got an idea. "If I give myself up, will you let him and everyone go?" He had his head down. "Have their minds wiped so they have no memory of any of this or me and they can just keep living their normal lives back on earth?" Although this was part of his plan, he was serious. He would gladly give himself up if it meant his friends were kept safe.

"_**What was that? You'll sacrifice yourself for your friends?"**_ He lowered both of the blades and thought. _**"I don't think the master will object to it for say. As far as I know, he only wants your head. With you out of the way, the throne will be open for the taking… I think the master can agree to that."**_ He threw the smaller blade away and held the bigger one over his shoulder. He made Echizen get in the middle of the room on his hands and knees. _**"Look at this, the great Echizen Ryoma on his hands and knees, groveling like a mere peasant."**_ He held the blade over his head. _**"Die."**_

At the moment before he swung, Echizen opened his eyes and Karupin came jolting out from under the bed in his full size and knocked Oishi into the wall, the blade out of his hand and the thing possessing him out of his body.

"_**You little bastard! You planned that!"**_ It hissed at him.

"Of course I did. Do you really think I'd give up so easily?" He crossed his arms and glared.

There was a knock on the door followed by voices. "Chibisuke, are you alright?" Apparently Ryoga had come to check on him.

"_**Why don't you answer them?"**_ The thing hissed.

"Heika, what's wrong?" Yukio was there too.

"You'd like that huh? Turn my back so you can get back in his body and get the jump on me."

"_**Silly boy. We can't go back into vessels with the mark."**_ And indeed a mark was starting to appear on Oishi's wrist. _**"I was thinking I could jump into you!"**_ The thing launched itself at Echizen and he was shrouded in black.

"Chibisuke open the door!" Ryoga and Yukio were trying to get in.

Echizen wrapped his wings around himself and dissipated the dark which went hovering back over Oishi._** "I don't understand. Why can't I possess you?!"**_

"Simple. I can't be taken over by someone so weak." He unfurled his wings then flapped at the black mass and shot feathers at him. It cried in pain then dissolved into nothing. Echizen looked at the spot it was in and sighed. He didn't want to have to go through that with all of his friends. He looked down at Oishi who had regained consciousness. "Oishi-sempai."

"Echizen? What am I doing on the floor?" He looked is wrist. "What's this…?" Then at Echizen. "Echizen… did I…?" Echizen merely nodded in response. "Echizen… I'm-" Banging came from the door and Ryoga and Yukio came running in.

"Chibisuke/Heika!" The two of them saw the situation.

"Ryoga-san, Yukio-san…" Oishi didn't want to look them in the eyes. "I… I just almost…"

"Oishi-dono, do you remember any of it?" Yukio went down to him while Ryoga went to Echizen.

"Chibisuke are you alright?" Echizen was swaying slightly. "What happened?"

"Ryoga…" Echizen vision was almost completely blurry. "I don't…" He collapsed onto his brother.

"Chibisuke!" Ryoga caught him and noticed how pale he was and placed a hand on his head. "He's burning up!"

Oishi and Yukio got up and rushed to them. Echizen was indeed pale yet extremely flushed. The wound he had received earlier that day was open and not waiting any time in letting blood seep out of it. The area around it was also blackened and the dark color could be seen going from the cut up and down his arms a bit in his veins. His shoulder wound wasn't nearly as bad. His breathing was raspy and hitched and way faster than it should have been.

"Come with me." Yukio rushed out of the room with Ryoga carrying Echizen and Oishi behind them.

"Where are we going?" Oishi yelled from the back.

"To the lower level. Our apothecary is down there." The three of them went rushing down halls and through corridors. They went down stairs and arrived at the apothecary's. "Kaze-san!" Yukio banged on the door. "Kaze-san, we need your assistance!"

A middle aged man with long brown hair and a little bit of stubble came to the door. "Yukio-kun, what you shouting about?" He asked with a yawn. "It's the middle of the night. Can't it wait?"

"You're a doctor Kaze-san. You need to start acting like it." He pushed through the door and had Ryoga and Oishi follow behind. "Our prince is injured, possibly dying and you ask us to wait? You know, sometimes I rea-"

"Alright, alright. Always so serious." He gestured for Ryoga to put Echizen on a table. "When was the last time I actually had to do something remotely close to a doctor?" He started examining Echizen. "I'd do anything to help our prince. Now what happened exactly?"

Yukio and Ryoga turned to Oishi for an explanation. "Well… I don't really know. I remember running around trying to get Momo and Eiji to leave Echizen alone then a brief moment in the boat and then just now, I was on the floor in Echizen's room…"

"With that no doubt." Kaze pointed to Oishi's wrist. "I've only seen that one other time in my thirty-five years being here."

"What are you talking about?" Yukio asked. "We looked in the archives when this happened to Momoshiro-dono. There was a little bit of black smoke but nothing like this. How do you know this exact thing has happened?"

Kaze paused his examination of Echizen and took off his coat then his shirt. Around his bicep was a mark like Oishi's and Momo's. "I'm living proof." He put his clothes back on and continued looking at Echizen. "I've been here the longest besides the historians. It was when the prince's father was to be crowned king after this father died. We, that is, the late king, myself and his elite guards had gone on a pilgrimage. What you're describing sounds similar to what happened back then except back then, everyone remembered what was happening. We could see what we were doing but had no way for stopping it."

"Why was this not documented?" Ryoga asked.

"For the sake of our reputation. Who would believe a group of the king's most trusted guards and personal physician tried to kill him but didn't mean to?"

"No one would…" Yukio said.

"Exactly. The first one to get it was me…I came at him in the night when we were getting ready to sleep and managed to do the same thing that we see here."

"What do you mean 'the same thing'?"

"I laced a small dagger with poison and managed to get a hit. Our young prince has felt the same fate."

"Echizen came back with that injury when he got separated from us during the boat race." Oishi said feeling slightly better knowing that he did no real harm to him.

"Either way that's what happened." He pointed to Echizen's veins in his shoulder. "The darkened color is the poison trying to spread."

"Well can you help him?" Ryoga was concerned.

"Of course I can. Why do you think I was his majesty's personal doctor?" He left Echizen to go rummage around through some cabinets. He came back with a small vile. "The poison doesn't seem to be as potent as the one I used otherwise he would already be dead but this should work nonetheless." He opened it and drop a bit into the wound. Echizen arched his back in pain and cried in pain. "Hold him down."

"What did you just do?!" Ryoga shouted over his brother's screams as he attempted to pin him to the table.

"It's just the anti-venom. The initial shock is usually the worst but he'll be thankful for it in the end." Kaze said as he went over to his bed and laid down.

"What do you mean he'll be thankful?" Oishi snapped. "It sounds like you're killing him!"

"Take a look at his arm." The three of them looked at the darkened red color start to fade and went back to the normal color. When it was completely gone, Echizen stopped thrashing. "He'll be fine. His fever should be going down and that wound isn't life threatening anymore. Wrap it up and let him sleep… but not here. Do it somewhere else. I want to sleep too." The three huffed and gave him dirty looks as they picked up Echizen and left.

"Are you sure he's qualified to be a doctor?" Oishi asked. "It didn't seem like he wanted to help."

"He's just like that but it worked. He's also going to be your mentor while you're here Oishi-dono." Yukio said sheepishly.

Oishi deadpanned. "N-Nani?"

"We were going to tell everyone after the race that they were going to be assigned to someone to help them get a better feel and just help them in general. Since you're considered the Medic of the group, I'm sorry to say but you're going to be stuck with him."

Oishi started protesting and complaining and asking to be put with someone else. He was with the man for five minutes and already couldn't stand him. Ryoga smiled at the two in front of him. He was glad that nothing truly horrifying happened. We was worried though that if they didn't do something soon then the next time he would see his brother, he would be lying on the floor in a pool of blood. He looked at his brother's face on his shoulder still distraught with hints of pain. He didn't like seeing him like that and wanted to help it stop for good. The three of them walked until they got to their rooms. Oishi bid them goodnight as he went into his. Ryoga said goodnight to Yukio and hoped things would be better in the morning. He rewrapped the wound, set his brother in bed then made his way into his own room where he hoped he could get a decent amount of sleep.

* * *

It was dark and Echizen could barely see what was in front of him but from the crunching underneath his feet, he could tell he was in the forest. He didn't have Karupin which was odd since him and the cat never left each other's sides. He didn't know where he was going but kept walking anyways. He made his way to the river then looked around. Something felt different. He flew across the river to the other side and kept walking. Everything on that side was still lush and green for a bit then it all turned to brown and black and he went further into it. Pretty soon he entered an area that was completely clear of trees and shrubs and just had dead foliage on the ground.

He didn't know what he was doing there nor the short journey he took to get there. Everything was a blur. He began looking around for symbols that might show him why he was there but there was nothing; just a clearing with dead plants surrounded by more dead plants. He was going to start heading back when he heard someone.

"_Heika."_ He came out from the shadows. It was the same person speaking in his head that was at the lake. _"I'm sorry for coming to you like this."_

For some reason Echizen didn't feel the need to draw his sword. "What am I doing here?"

"_Heika, I'm begging you, please find us and defeat the evil."_

"Who are you anyways? And why should I trust you? You tried to kill me last time I saw you."

He looked ashamed. _"I am sorry for that but I had to otherwise __**he**__ would've sent someone who would've shown you no mercy."_

"What do you mean **he**?" Echizen was getting aggravated. "Who are you? And why do you keep calling me Heika?"

"_You are the ruler of this realm… and you were once and will always be the prince I'll gladly give my life for."_

That caught him off guard. "What are you talking about?"

Before he could speak, the figure looked around and quickly faded into the shadows. _"You must wake up now! If you do not, this whole world will be at fault and in the hands of a merciless ruler."_

Echizen was going to shout at him but there was another sharp pain in his shoulder and quickly opened his eyes. It took him a second but he was in his room with someone lingering over him with a sword about to come down on his neck. He rolled to the side as the sword was brought down then kicked the person in the side sending him across to the end of the bed. Echizen met him and did the same thing sending him to the end of the room.

As he was going to draw his sword, he got rather dizzy and nauseous seeing as he was still under the effects of the poison that was in his system. He leaned against the bed for support but never took his eyes off the person. "W-Who are you? What are you doing here?"

The figured stood up and scoffed. **"Isn't it obvious? I'm a minion of the dark one and I'm here to take your life. You can call me Rin if you like." **He lunged at Echizen with incredible speed. Echizen didn't have enough time to reach so he merely crossed his arms in front and willed a shield between them. Rin slashed with such great force that it sent Echizen flying back and crashing through his door, landing on the floor with a thud. **"You stupid child. Do you honestly think you can rule this world? Look at you on your back like that. How pathetic."**

He sat up in the hall with hitched breathing. He was going to pass out. He placed his fingers in his mouth and whistled. As he did, Karupin came out from nowhere and head-butted the Rin sending him back into Echizen's room. Karupin went to help Echizen up. He looked out the windows. The sun was coming up. He almost fell over again as Karupin dashed away from him and back towards the figure that reemerged from the room. He had wondered why no one had come out to see what the commotion was and assumed that whoever his attacker was had put up some sort of sound barrier so they wouldn't be disturbed.

He was drawn from his thoughts as Karupin got smacked against the wall and shrunk back to normal size. Echizen was going to run to him but Rin was right in front of him and did the same, smacking him into a small table and shattering it. He sat there trying to get his breathing right again.

"**Any last words for this world's little prince?"** Rin raised this sword.

Echizen smirked. He placed his fingers in his mouth once more and whistled. Rin covered his ears. This one wasn't like the other, it was ear piercing. It was so loud the spell on the rooms was broken and the windows shattered. It got quieter and soon this hand fell from his mouth and he passed out.

"**Stupid boy."** He raised his sword once more. He was going to swing but he heard doors opening. He looked up to see a red haired person come out of his door with a yawn and then behind a brown head with a smile and one with pointed black. Pretty soon he saw everyone come out of their rooms and into the hall. **"Just like you to call in your knights to save you, you weakling."**

"What are you doing to Ochibi?!" Kikumaru shouted getting everyone else's attention to focus on the two in the room.

"**Che. Looks like playtime's over." **He raised his blade. He could hear the regulars shouting to him and running at him and smirked. **"This is the end! Goodbye sweet prince!"**

* * *

**This looks like a nice place to end.**_** I hate you so much right now. **_** Huehuehue.**

**Well, there's chapter nine. Lots of action and shit for you so don't complain. I was going to continue but the chapter would be longer than I wanted and I would have trouble starting the next one and that means it would be out later and I know you guys don't want that so suffer with a cliffhanger.**

**Tell me what you thought! It helps!**

**There was a certain someone who asked for a certain thing to make a reappearance and that might just happen…**

**Forgive mistakes and spelling and grammar and procrastination and lateness and corniness and stupidness and weirdness and just forgive me.**

**Hope you liked it! See ya next time!**


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